The Thought That Counts
by DCFanatic4life
Summary: Chris Jericho is about to have a life-altering event...so be careful what you think...slight AU...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the real people or the characters portrayed in this story. The characters belong to WWE and the people own themselves. This is going to have adult things in it so kids, keep on moving along now!

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A/N: So, since a few of my stories seem to be nearing their conclusions (hopefully), I figured it would be okay to add another story onto the pile. This is a tiny bit AU-ish, neither Stephanie nor Chris have any children in this one, I like them, but they just don't fit in, sorry guys! Anyways, as with all my new stories, let me know if you want me to continue and be brutal if you want to be. So I hope you enjoy and reviews are welcome. :)

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_I don't think I can feel my legs_.

Chris gave a smirk as he stretched his back. It was always nice to actually see his handiwork. He'd never left a woman unsatisfied, in bed or otherwise. Hell, even right before his divorce to Jessica, she'd still craved him. Right after the divorce had been finalized, he'd screwed her in the men's bathroom at the courthouse. He'd called it a parting goodbye and the way she wobbled while she walked away meant that she would remember him for a while.

He wasn't a womanizer or anything, well, okay, he wasn't _that_ much of a womanizer. He liked to think he was an appraiser of women. He liked to be in their company and he liked the way they looked and smelled and laughed. So he tried to surround himself with them, but he didn't sleep with them all. His friends called him a flirt and it was true, he did flirt a lot with pretty much any girl, ugly, pretty, he liked to make them all feel special. He was charming and it would be a shame to let that go to waste.

Hell, he'd been with Barbie for three months now and he wasn't planning on dumping her any time soon. She was hot and young and pretty and though she wasn't smart, he didn't care because he wasn't with her for the in-depth discussions of English literature pre-Shakespeare. She was a good time and the first relationship he'd had since his divorce. They weren't thinking long-term and it was nice to have that right now, when his future was so uncertain as it was.

Some might call it a midlife crisis or something, dating a girl nearly half his age, someone who, theoretically, was old enough to be his daughter. Whatever it was, he didn't care and it wasn't like he was the only one. Jessica was dating a 19 year old that she'd met at the grocery store. She pranced around with him on her arm and he didn't give two shits. At least he wasn't dating a teenager. If this was a midlife crisis, he welcomed it. He opened his eyes and turned on his side. Barbie was facing him, her eyes still closed, but they were fluttering so he knew she was awake and just trying to go back to sleep.

_God, I don't want to even get out of bed today, stupid work!_

Chris stared at her for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing together. He'd heard her voice, he'd heard her words, but he was staring at her face and her lips hadn't moved. He must have not been paying attention. They'd been drinking last night and he was probably drunk last night, from what he could remember. They'd gotten a few drinks, came back to the hotel room and fell onto the bed in a heap of arms and legs and alcoholic hazes. It must just be the hangover. He blinked a couple times, reaching up with his right hand to rub his eyes.

_Fuck, I think I could have sex all day today._

Okay, it had just happened again, he could hear her, but her mouth wasn't moving. "Barbie doll," he said, using the nickname she liked when they were having sex. She would tell him to use her as his own personal fuck toy. Barbie really got turned on with dirty talk, especially when you called her a dirty whore and started smacking her on the ass. She liked to play it kinky, even trying to give him blow jobs in public places. It was fun to be with her, but also a little tedious because of her unending sex drive. Not that he truly minded.

"What?" she asked and now her lips were moving.

_Don't wake me up, I don't want to get up, let me sleep!_

"Did you just say something?" he asked.

"I just said what," she told him. "You wanna fuck again?"

"Um, no," he told her softly.

_Too bad, I think I can still feel his cum leaking out of me, I need a shower, but I want to sleep._

"Are you sure you didn't say anything?"

"I _just_ asked if you wanted to fuck again, God, you want me to fucking beg?" Barbie asked, opening one of her eyes to look at him. She reached under the covers and grabbed him. He was flaccid, but started to get hard at her ministrations. "Do you like it when I'm your little whore that you can use like the dirty slut that I am?"

_Mmm, I can't wait until he's in me again._

He pulled away and stumbled out of bed. "Shower, I need a shower," he told her, staring at her face. Before he went into the bathroom. "Hey, Barbie, you don't have any…special weird skills or talents do you?"

"Sucking cock," she shrugged, looking at him seriously, like this was a real-world talent. He stared at her. "You look like you want your cock sucked right now, am I right?"

He looked down and he was semi-hard yes and he could probably have her right now, just fuck her through the mattress…_Oh, please, please, please let me just get it over with and suck his cock so I can go back to sleep. My head is killing me, I have a headache, can you take Midol for headaches, no, stupid, that's for cramps, but it's like my head is cramping, I guess I could take it, but it wouldn't work, would he just FUCK me already!_ "No, no, no," Chris said, shaking his head. He'd heard a whole monologue, but her mouth hadn't moved and she'd just been staring at him.

_What the hell is his problem? He sounds crazy, if he's crazy, I'm _so_ breaking up with him because I do _not_ want to be murdered in my sleep._

"I've…shower!" he said, slamming the door on her. He turned and gripped the edge of the sink, reaching out with his left hand to flicker the lights on. He stared in the mirror. He didn't look any different. He looked the same, a little disheveled from sleep, but otherwise nothing. He took a step back and inspected his body. Nothing there, no weird bite marks. He pinched himself for good measure, it hurt, yes, he was awake. So why…no, they couldn't be. That was just crazy. It was just crazy that he could…hear Barbie's thoughts? No, she had to be…like a ventriloquist or something, she was able to throw her voice. But the things she was…those things were not anything she'd say to him, the murdering thing. God, no, he was not.

This was not Heroes and he had not just heard someone's thoughts. He wasn't going to walk out there and find he had superpowers. That was silly, he was dreaming or hurt, in a coma, an accident, what the fuck had happened last night? He tried to think, tried to think about what had gone out. Anything, _anything_ out of the ordinary? Okay, he could think this through. He sat on the edge of the shower and put his head in his hands. He took a couple deep breaths and tried to compose himself. He needed a clear head because last night was pretty hazy.

They'd had a show. They were in Connecticut, the Mohegan Sun casino. After the show, most of the guys had wandered into the casino and then the bar. He and Barbie had been drinking with some of the guys, but that wasn't unusual. Maybe he'd been drugged? But what the fuck kind of drug allowed people to read other's minds…if that's what he was doing. No, he couldn't read her mind. It wasn't, he wasn't reading, it was like she was talking and he was hearing, but no, stupid, stupid, stupid Chris, mind-readers only existed in TV shows or movies or books, not in real life. Now what happened after the drinking.

"_I'm going to ride you hard," Barbie said, bouncing on her feet. "I'm going to ride you so hard you'll think you're a horse."_

_He laughed at how little sense she was making. He pressed his finger to her lips and then replaced his finger with his own lips. "You are…drunk!"_

"_I'm not!" she said, even as she swayed on her feet._

"_So why can't you even walk in a straight line, Barbie doll?" he asked her, snorting with laughter._

"_Because I'm dancing," she told him, "can't you hear the music?"_

"_I think it's in your head," he said, tapping her forehead. "Cute, cute forehead."_

"You_ have a cute forehead," she told him, trying to jump up and kiss his forehead. Instead he grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up as she wrapped her legs around his waist. They pushed up against the bank of elevators and he pushed the button as she made out with him._

"_I'm going to fuck you through the mattress, hell, through the floor," he told her. _

"_Yes, yes," she moaned against his mouth._

_He set her down. "You better be ready to be fucked like the whore you are," he whispered to her. "Does that make you wet, huh?"_

"_God, yes," she said hoarsely._

"_Excuse me, Mr. Jericho."_

_Chris looked off to the side at an older woman. "What?"_

"_I was wondering if I could have your autograph for my grandson. We came to the show tonight, but he fell asleep and his parents drove him back home. I just thought it would be nice."_

"_Can't you see I'm fucking busy here," he said, something he would never say while sober. "I'm going upstairs with my girlfriend and I don't have time for autographs because she needs to be f-u-c-k-e-d."_

"_Please," she pleaded._

"_Beat it," Chris told her. "I don't…I don't have time for silly autographs."_

"_Chrissy, kiss me," Barbie pouted. "Kiss me there…"_

"_Not here," he laughed. He looked to the side again. "You're still here, God, can't you see I don't want to sign whatever, God, fans, I swear, you shitbags sometimes."_

_The woman narrowed her eyes. "Chris Jericho, you will learn your lesson, oh yes, you will learn to think before you speak, to think of others and until you do…good luck, Mr. Jericho."_

"_Fuck off," he called as the woman stared at him._

Shit, what the hell? He closed his eyes as he remembered how rude he was to that woman. Normally he wouldn't be, but he was thinking with his dick, not his head. Now…no way, she couldn't put a spell on him. There were no such things as spells. There was just no way that they could…well, the woman had looked Native American. Maybe they could cast weird spells. Or maybe he really was just hallucinating. Yeah, he was just…it was nothing. Barbie was just…he was making this up. He took his shower and then went out to get dressed. Barbie was back asleep and he got dressed and went down to get some food before hitting the gym. He met up with Adam at the elevators.

"Hey man," Adam winked. "You have a nice night?"

_I can't believe he's actually sleeping with Barbie, doesn't he know how slutty she is. Not that I wouldn't fuck her if I had the chance, but then, wouldn't everyone?_

"What the fuck?" Chris asked, taking a step back.

"Huh, I just asked if you had a nice night," Adam said.

"No, you…do you think that Barbie is a slut?"

"Well, no, I mean, you know how rumors travel."

_Yeah, rumors, straight from Randy's mouth that he fucked Barbie on the hood of his car as she begged him to make her knees bleed. Or when Jake Hager said he had sex with her in the ocean when we were all in Puerto Rico._

"Jake Hager?" Chris said.

"What, wait, what, was I thinking aloud?" Adam said.

"You were just thinking about Jake?"

_I hope he doesn't get too offended, I mean, a lot of guys have slept with Barbie, at least she's in her twenties now, I remember Andrew dated her when she was still 19, which, I don't know how he could touch a 19-year-old, that's even too young for me, not that I'd cheat on Casey, but well, no, I wouldn't. _

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to think aloud, just, you know, they had sex while in Puerto Rico, way before you guys started dating."

"You were thinking it though?"

"Well, yeah."

"Shit," Chris said. "I've gotta, I don't…"

"You okay?" Adam asked. "You don't sound like yourself.

He had to keep it together, it was okay, everything was fine. This wasn't a big deal. It wasn't a huge deal. This was just nothing. It was probably one day and then everything would go back to normal. He wasn't cursed or anything, there were no such things as curses. He was just…maybe he was in an accident and he was in some dream world. Yeah, everything was fine, he'd get better soon. Oh God, who the fuck was he kidding?

He could hear people's thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'm so glad you guys liked the first chapter so much, thanks for all the lovely reviews! I should note that this was a challenge fic given to me by Jodi (StephanieIrvine) so if you like the idea, you should give her, her props. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well, if you want to review, feel free to do so, they make me smile. Thanks. :)

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Now that he accepted his fate (curse?) the next thing to do was figure out what to do with it. He had no clue what to do with it, why he had it in the first place, what purpose it would serve. So far he'd only seen Barbie and Adam and that was fine, but would this extend to everyone, to the whole world? Could he look at someone and just hear them, see their thoughts? Was that how it worked? Or would it be restricted to just people he knew, people he interacted with everyday? Why was he even wondering this? Maybe he had a brain tumor and it needed to be removed, maybe it was eating at his brain.

"Dude, you really don't look good," Adam told him, gripping his shoulder.

_I wonder if he had too much to drink last night_.

"I didn't have too much to drink last night," Chris told him.

"Okay, I didn't say you did," Adam said, looking at him strangely.

_What the hell was that? It was like he could read what I was thinking. Ha, like that could ever happen._

Chris decided then and there that this had to be a secret. He could not tell anyone about this. The power in someone else's hands, God, he couldn't imagine. Not that anyone would believe him, not really, at least not at first. They'd think he was crazy, they'd want him committed and how could he possibly get out of that one, read their minds and convince him that no, he wasn't crazy, just a freak? He couldn't let anyone know about this. He couldn't act like anything was out of the ordinary or else they'd catch on. He felt almost like a trapped animal, writhing around and wishing to be free but—

_What the fuck is up with him today? _

"I'm fine," Chris told him, "let's just go down to breakfast," Chris said, pushing the elevator button incessantly.

"Dude, that's not going to make the elevator appear any faster," Adam told him, but Chris didn't stop pushing the button.

_Okay, maybe he had a fight with Barbie…_

"Did you have a fight with-"

"No, I didn't have a fight with Barbie," Chris said, "I just don't feel like talking to her right now."

Her thoughts were so insipid, so annoying. He knew she had annoying tendencies, she displayed them in everyday life, but he had never been bothered by them because they weren't serious to begin with so it wasn't like he'd have to spend the rest of his life thinking about how she thought it was funny that she'd once peed in a sink and not inherently disgusting or how she liked to chew on her hair when she was bored and then she'd get hair in her mouth and pick it out before flinging it away and usually towards him. He could deal with those things, but he thought, or hoped, maybe, that there was something _in_ her that was smart or competent, but it didn't seem like there was. But still, she wasn't hurting anyone, least of all him so he shouldn't be so cruel in his thinking.

"I understand," Adam said with a nod, "sometimes I just don't want to talk to Casey."

_I don't even see how he can hold a conversation with Barbie. All her brains are in her chest, or her mouth from what I've heard._

Chris should have been bothered by what Adam was saying, but the elevator mercifully came before he could think about it any further. Was this how _everyone_ thought of his girlfriend? Were they all nice to her face and horribly mean to her behind her back? Whatever he thought of Barbie, she didn't really deserve that. The elevator ride was quiet and Edge's thoughts that pushed into Chris's mind was mostly humming along with images (wait, he could see _images_ too? Well this was just getting ridiculous.) of Edge's girlfriend naked. Wow, so men really _did_ think about sex all the time. Casey wasn't that bad-looking he had to admit. Wait, this was wrong. How did he turn off this switch?

He thought back to what the woman had said. It wouldn't be gone until he learned his lesson? What lesson? What lesson was there to learn? He didn't know and he sure as hell didn't know how to find this mystery woman to apologize and give her a million different autographs for everyone she had _ever _met. He guessed he'd have to find out that lesson. He realized then, that when he was concentrated, extremely concentrated on himself and his own thoughts that the other thoughts were blocked out. Well that would come in handy.

They arrived downstairs and as soon as the doors opened, he felt bombarded by noise. It was like a rush of sound in his brain and he had to stagger to the door, but couldn't press forward, his hand going to his forehead, trying to make sense of it all. All he got were snippets, small pieces of thoughts, of conversations. It was doubly loud when he added in all the real conversation. The elevator kept trying to close, but he felt like collapsing against the floor. Adam was by his side in a moment, grabbing his arm and holding him up.

"Chris, what's wrong?" Adam asked frantically. "Do you need to go to the hospital? Do you need the doctor?"

_Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit_

"No, no, I'm fine," Chris said weakly, then managed to spit out, "hangover, too much noise."

Adam looked around. The lobby was busy, but it wasn't _too_ busy and there was a general buzz of noise around them, but it wasn't too loud. Then again, he wasn't the one with the hangover and he knew that hangovers could really suck. "Do you want me to take you back upstairs, maybe you just need to sleep it off?"

Chris tried to focus his brain, focus it on anything. He thought of his favorite song, _Love the One You're With_ (but if anyone asked, he would deny, deny, deny and then pick something _way_ heavier) and that seemed to center him enough to stand up. He rubbed his temples a little bit. If he just hummed the song in his head, everything would be okay. "I'm fine," Chris said. "I just need to eat."

"Come on, let's get you the greasiest fucking thing on the menu, it'll help," Adam said, clapping him on the back.

They made their way over to the small café that adjoined the lobby and were seated immediately. Chris could still hear faint whispers of the people around him, but if he just didn't focus on them, they quieted down to where they were merely white noise in the back of his head. Even Edge's thoughts had a dull edge to them, softened by his own mind. He could control this. It didn't have to control him. He could do this. He could make this work, somehow, until he learned whatever lesson he was slated to learn.

"Hey, guys, good morning, is there anything I can get you to drink?" their waitress said. She was a cute girl, smiling face and piercing green eyes.

"Coffee," Chris told her.

"Same," Edge nodded.

_Two hot guys. Gotta remind myself to unbutton the top couple buttons on my shirt. That always gets me better tips. Men…_

Chris stared at her as she brought back over the coffee pot, overturning the two mugs that had been sitting on their table. Like she'd thought, the top two buttons were unbuttoned on her white dress shirt and gave him a good view of her cleavage. He found it kind of sad she needed to do that to get good tips. She took their orders and Chris just tried to focus on his napkin, looking down at it and ignoring the thoughts popping in from other people.

"I can't wait to go home after the show tonight."

"Yeah," Chris said.

"The Pay-Per-View was pretty crazy last night, huh?"

"Totally," Chris nodded. "I'll be glad to get home too." Home meant there wouldn't be a lot of people around. It meant he wouldn't have to listen and block out everyone's thoughts. Breakfast ended up being fine as long as he didn't let the voices overrun him. He bet the lady thought he would go crazy with all the voices, but he was stronger than that. He could control this. He wasn't going to let her win. He would perfect his newfound "power."

On the way out from breakfast, he wrote on the receipt, "You don't need to unbutton your top for better tips." On top of that, he'd left her a generous tip. He and Adam split up after that, Adam heading to his room to grab his things to head to the arena.

Chris stepped into a deserted hallway just off the registration desk and leaned against the wall. The lobby was filled more now than it had been when he'd walked through it and the more voices, the more noise in his brain. He took a deep breath to contain his composure and then concentrated on blocking all the other voices out. It helped, but they weren't completely gone. He took another deep breath, slowly releasing it, concentrating on breathing out slowly. The voices faded a little further. He could do this, he just needed to really try. He took another deep breath and controlled his mind. Again, the voices started to dissipate. He stayed there, just breathing slowly and trying to control the cacophony around him. He was getting better at it, it became easier and he was grateful for the short reprieve. If he just took deep breaths, everything would be okay. He tried not to think of the arena tonight, what it would be like going out there in front of the crowd. If he collapsed like he did when he stepped off the elevator, everyone would think he was sick and he might have to explain and he couldn't explain without coming off like an insane person.

He took one more deep breath before turning the corner to head back to his room and grab his stuff. He just hoped Barbie had left so he wouldn't have to hear her thoughts again. While not paying attention, he bumped into something very solid and his hands reached blindly for whatever it was, but he couldn't grab a hold of it, but his mind was grabbing a hold of the thoughts. He found that when he was focused on one person and one person only, everything else seemed to fade like a soft whisper.

_Oh my God, oh my God…_

He looked down and saw he had run into Stephanie. Great, just the person he wanted to see. "Sorry," he mumbled, offering her his hand.

She grabbed it and pulled herself. "God, don't you ever watch where you're going, Irvine?"

_Asshole, he can't even walk right…_

He bit his tongue. Stephanie had never particularly liked him. When they'd first started working together, he'd thought maybe they could become friends, but that had never panned out. She was an ice queen and she took things way too seriously. Sure, she was beautiful, but hey, he thought a lot of people were beautiful and she was probably vain as hell, not that that was a bad thing, Barbie was vain as hell too, but it worked fine for her, it didn't fit right on Stephanie, it just made her a snob.

"Sorry," he repeated. "I just didn't see you there."

"So what, you need glasses too?" she asked him sarcastically.

_God, of all the people I had to run into this morning, it had to be this guy. As if my morning weren't bad enough, I have to deal with this. I don't have _time_ for this. I've got so much to do, first I've got to get to the arena, get the schedule posted up, make sure the storylines are flowing, rewrite the storylines that don't work…_

Even her thoughts were boring as hell. "I don't need glasses, I had laser eye surgery," he finally responded.

"Oh, so they just screwed up then," she told him bitingly.

_Maybe I can put him in a handicap match. I can have him face Paul…yeah, right, like Paul would ever allow me to actually put him in a match like that, not when he has Dad's ear all the time…bastard…_

Well that was interesting. Stephanie and Paul had always put up the most interesting of fronts to the people. He'd thought they were doing fine, sitting up there in their mansion and cackling about all the stupid, little underlings and how they could screw everyone over some more. It was nice to think Stephanie thought the same of Paul as 95% of the roster. It made her a little bit human, albeit most of her was still a bitch, at least part of her was something softer and less jagged.

"Very funny, maybe next time I should go to the guy that did these," Chris said, gesturing towards her chest.

She glared at him, "You think you're so funny…"

_God, I hate these things, I wish I'd never been talked into them. Maybe I _should_ get them taken out…but then Paul…_

Her thought seemed to trail off and he wanted to hear more of what Paul was…hell, he wanted to hear all of what Paul was. That would be good information to know actually. Stephanie stared at him, "Why are you staring at me?"

"What?" He said, shaking himself free of his thoughts and her thoughts, but it was difficult when they were right there.

_What a weirdo_…

"You were staring at me," she said. "It shouldn't take you that long to think of some way to make fun of me, I thought you had a quicker wit than that."

"I do," he said quietly. There was something disquieting about her thoughts though, something in the tone of them, something just on the fringe that he couldn't place. He was making her uncomfortable though, he didn't need her thoughts to tell him that. He could visibly see her nearly squirming in front of him.

_Why is he staring like that? God, do I have something on my face? That would be just like me to have egg yolk on my face or something and then he'd make some stupid remark about having egg on my face and how I should've had that after some of the storylines I've subjected him to, like it's been _all_ my fault, except it never is…_

He wanted her to elaborate on that, but she was looking at him again, head tilted. "Stop that, why are you staring at me? Are you just blinded by me because most men are."

"Yes, because blind men are the only men you can get into your bed. I think Paul can be included because he probably can't see over that nose."

She smirked at him and he almost thought she wanted to laugh, but her mind didn't give him anything. "Why were you staring at me?"

"Because you're right there, that's all," Chris shrugged. "Now I think I'll be going on my way now."

"Fine, don't let me stop you," Stephanie said, stepping out of the way.

_Jerk_.

Well, at least some people said what they felt around here.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks so much for all the great reviews, I really appreciate them for this story. I'm not crazy about this chapter, but I do hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think via review or PM or smoke signal, I'm up for anything. :)

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Okay, so he could hear people's thoughts. So he was "cursed" and had no way of finding the woman he had wronged. The only thing he could do was try to figure out what that woman had meant. He had to learn his lesson or something akin to that. He could do that. Maybe it just meant making a lifestyle change. Maybe it was the partying that he had to curb. He could just stop partying and maybe that was the lesson he needed to learn. He could do that. It wasn't that hard to stay in at night. Maybe it was the not getting so drunk part. He could do that too, stop with the drinking. Hell, he had this in the bag.

His phone rang and he looked to his nightstand. He'd intended to come home and to just stay there, not going out, not doing anything that required him to try and block out anyone's thoughts. He found that he could still watch TV without hearing the actor's thoughts, so it seemed that he wasn't privy to hearing thoughts that had already happened or that weren't right in front of him. That was reassuring. He might go crazy if he had to stick to books or something equally boring. He lost himself in mindless television, a reprieve from the confusing thoughts of others that plagued him. He'd not even gone to the store, instead surviving on the canned food he happened to have in his cupboard.

He sighed and picked up his phone, looking at the number. Barbie. He wasn't really in the mood to talk to her or hear her inane thoughts, but if he didn't answer, she would keep calling until he did. "Hey, babe," he said, trying to sound enthusiastic in talking to her.

"Chris, hey, I thought you might not answer," she told him with a bubbly laugh. "Do you want to go out tonight?"

Why had he chosen the diva that actually lived in the same city he did? "I'm not sure I feel up to going out, Barbie. I kind of just wanted to use my alone time to myself."

"Oh," Barbie said and he wasn't hearing anything that could be her thoughts and while he doubted Barbie had many of those, it was another reassurance that he couldn't hear thoughts over the phone. But it wasn't practical to run the rest of his life over the phone. "But it would be fun to go out."

"We were out the other night," he told her. "Don't you think that's enough?" With the way his luck was going, they'd run into another woman who would curse him with something like enhanced sense of smell or something and he'd suffocate on Barbie's perfume.

"Yeah, but that was the other night and tonight is tonight and I'm bored," she whined.

"Can't you go out with some of your girlfriends?" he wondered. He could just picture himself at some club, the music thumping and thoughts of sex running through his brain coming from every which way. That was not his idea of a great Saturday night. "Besides, tomorrow is a travel day and I don't really want to deal with a hangover as I'm flying to the next location."

"We won't drink…much," she added the last part coyly, like she couldn't go a single second without a drink in her hands. "Just a few and we'll dance and then we can go back to your place and you have that nice, big bed."

He almost didn't want to imagine what ran through her mind when she was having sex. If was anything like what ran her mind when she wasn't having sex, he wouldn't even be able to get it up, let alone fuck her brains out. "I'm not sure, Barbie, I was really looking forward to the downtime."

"Downtime?" she asked. "How about I just come over and I go down on you."

"Can you really not go two seconds without a cock in your mouth?" he asked her, getting annoyed now. There was insatiable and there was borderline nymphomania.

"Chris," she said and he knew she was pouting and he might have stepped over the line. Maybe Edge's thoughts were really getting to him. He was supposed to be just having fun with Barbie. After his disaster of a divorce, he wasn't supposed to want anything more than a fling or two and who better than with Barbie, who admittedly wanted sex most of the time.

"I'm sorry," he said. "That was uncalled for."

"You act like I'm some sort of slut or something," Barbie said.

"Look, can I call you back later?" Chris asked. "I'll see if I'm up for something later, okay?"

"Okay," she said, "you promise?"

"Yeah, yeah, I promise," he answered quickly before hanging up without saying goodbye. He went to his contacts and went down the list until he came to Jay's number. If anyone could keep a level head, it was Jay. For all his goofiness, he still gave pretty sound advice and it would be interesting to see what he was thinking.

"Chris?"

"Hey Jay, what're you doing right now?"

"Hanging with my cats."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes," Jay said slowly, "why do you ask?"

"Well, I think there's some hockey game from Russia or something on tonight, want to come over and have a beer and watch or something."

"Chris, if you just want me to come over, ask, don't act like there's some Russian hockey game, you just want me to come over?"

"Yeah, that'd be good, thanks," Chris said, knowing he didn't have to put up the pretenses with Jay.

The divorce had been hard on him. It had just gotten ugly with the money issues. Jessica hadn't worked since before they were married and though they'd signed a prenuptial agreement (on the advisement of his father), she had tried to go for spousal support, which he'd been willing to give her, but not nearly at the price that she'd wanted. It had dragged on and on until he finally won and while he was giving her alimony, it was not half as much as she wanted. She could certainly live off what he was giving her, but it wasn't to extravagance.

The problem was that most of his friends were still in Canada and the ones that weren't still lived too far to go hang out and have a beer after a long day with his lawyers. Jay had been there for him more than anyone. It helped that they lived in the same city, but Jay was just an understand guy all-around. He could listen and give input and not make you feel stupid for your thoughts. He was a one in a million type of guy and Chris knew he was lucky to call him his friend. He wasn't going to confide in him about the situation, but he might get some insight that would help him.

It only took Jay about 10 minutes to drive over and Chris invited him inside with a beer. Jay grabbed it and they fell onto the couch, putting it on ESPN and watching whatever happened to be on, billiards or something equally uninteresting, "So what's going on with you?"

"It's Barbie," Chris said.

_Of course it's about Barbie. Maybe Chris has _finally_ come to his senses about her. _

"What about her?" Jay asked and Chris wasn't surprised to hear that Jay didn't like her either. Did _anyone_ actually like her?

"Well, I mean, what are your thoughts on her?" Chris said, pun not intended.

"She's…nice."

_If you go for the bimbo-y type. The girl is totally immature. She belongs in high school, for God's sakes. I've never met anyone so stupid…_

"So you think I'm an idiot for dating her?" Chris asked.

"Well, I wouldn't say you were an idiot. You just came out of a divorce so it's not like you're looking for anything serious, right? I guess if you're looking for something that doesn't require the commitment then she is just the right person for you."

"But you don't like her," Chris stated.

_God no!_

"I just don't know her that well. I mean, we really only work together," Jay told him. "I don't think I've really hung out with her when you weren't there and usually, you know, we're drunk and everything."

_I think drunk is the only way to get through an evening with Barbie._

"She's not terrible."

"I wouldn't think so if you were dating her," Jay said.

Chris wanted to laugh. It was just ridiculous how someone's thoughts could be so different from what they said. How much of the world was just one big lie? Everyone seemed to be saying one thing to his face and thinking another thing. He almost wished that he were at a show with his coworkers so he could really see what everyone thought of him and Barbie together, hell, what everyone thought of _him_. He had a lot of friends backstage, but could he really consider any of them his friends if they thought about him behind his back and possibly_ said_ these things to other people?

"What do you think of me, Jay?" Chris asked, needing to test this hypothesis.

"What do you mean, in general or you with Barbie?" Jay wondered.

"Me in general."

"You're one of my best friends and we've known each other for a long time and I think you're one of the coolest people I've ever known," Jay responded quickly as if he didn't really have to think about it, but Chris kind of focused in on Jay's brain. It was getting much easier to control what he heard. If he just really tuned them out, brought his brain back to his thoughts, he could internalize his own thoughts and block out the other thoughts so to speak.

_I wonder what made him ask that question, I guess he needs an ego boost from the divorce. I can't believe what that bitch Jessica was trying to do to him, take all his money like that while she sat on her ass all day and did nothing._

Chris smiled. Jay _was_ a true friend. Sure it wasn't exactly like that with Jessica, but he was glad his friend made Jessica out to be the bad guy. "Thanks, guess I just kind of needed to hear that," Chris told him.

"So why are you really asking me about Barbie?"

_Please dump her, please dump her so I never have to pretend I'm interested in anything she has to say ever again. Not to mention when I have to hear Denise go on and on about how slutty she dresses._

"I just woke up the other morning with her and it was…different," Chris explained, his lips pursing a little bit as he thought back to that morning, the morning when everything in his life changed. Hearing Barbie's thoughts…God, they were as vapid as she was and he could barely handle them and didn't think he could handle them again if pressed.

"Well, maybe you realized that you were growing over her. I mean, she's young enough to be your daughter, Chris, at some point I think the novelty of the younger woman was going to wear off," Jay told him and he may be right, but hearing Barbie's thoughts certainly played a role in it.

"Yeah," Chris said, nursing his beer. "Hey, so um, what are your thoughts on Stephanie McMahon?"

"Dude, she's married," Jay said, narrowing his eyes at Chris.

_I cannot believe Chris would go for a married woman. I mean, I thought Barbie was bad, but that would be a million times worse._

"Jay, I don't want her," Chris scoffed. "I mean, no way. I think I'd rather gouge my eyes out than be with Stephanie McMahon…I was just wondering about her relationship with Paul, that's all. I mean, those two, what's up with them?"

"I don't know, they seem happy."

_Evil_.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess they do," Chris said, but he knew that wasn't exactly the case. He just didn't know what the real case was. Not that he wanted to find out. Stephanie wasn't his friend and he had no obligation to any part of her life and it wasn't like he had some savior complex. If she wanted to waste away her days on the arm of that power-hungry troll she married, he was more than happy to let her ruin her life. The doorbell rang and he walked to the door and looked through the peephole and sighed.

Barbie Blank.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews for this story. I'm really enjoying writing it, it's kind of fun to try and tap into people's brains. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter (it's very K2-bashing heavy, sorry for anyone who's a fan of hers) and reviews are always a welcome surprise so leave one if you want. :)

* * *

He opened the door.

_God, he always looks so fuckable. I just want to fuck him all the time if he would just let me, I don't think I'd ever get off his dick._

If there was one person on this earth whose thoughts he didn't want to hear, he was probably going to have to put Barbie on the top of that list. He was surprised she was able to walk in a straight line because her brain always seemed to be on sex. Sure, they said a guy thinks about sex every eight seconds or whatever that stupid statistic said, but even he didn't think about sex as much as Barbie did. It was like she wasn't happy unless she had a cock in her mouth.

"Barbie, I thought I said I would call you."

"I know you said that," Barbie told him, "but I thought me being in the flesh might entice you more."

_I even shaved down there, just like he likes _and_ I wore one of my cutest outfits, there's no way that he can resist this_.

One of her cutest outfits turned out to be one of her sluttiest. She was obviously cold, if her nipples were any indication, unless she'd started to keep ice cubes in her car just for these types of occasions. Her top was plunging in the neckline and probably held onto her breasts by double-sided tape because the neckline was now a navel line. She was also wearing tiny jean shorts that had probably been ripped from some respectable jeans. But Barbie's clothing had passed respectable quite some time ago.

"Barbie, I told you I would call you," he said, trying very hard not to sound exasperated, but he was. He didn't have time to deal with her and her insipid behavior.

Barbie had been fun before, but now that he could hear her thoughts and now that he knew there really was _nothing_ below the surface, she was starting to become irritating. Was this how the rest of the world saw her? God, maybe he'd just been too blind from his divorce and the rebound to see that he'd been rebounding in the wrong direction. But then, on the other hand, and playing his own devil's advocate, maybe it was just him that elicited this kind of response from Barbie. He'd have to observe her away from him to really gauge her thoughts. It was the only fair thing to do.

"I know, but I was so lonely," she pouted.

_I just wanted you, can't you see that, I mean, I'm trying here_, _God_.

He sighed and stared at her. "Barbie, I get that you were lonely, but I told you I would call and I would have called to tell you that I'm hanging out with Jay tonight and we're just going to chill for a while."

"Chris, who's at the door?" Jay asked before he walked into the foyer and saw Barbie slinking around the front door. _Oh great, here comes the chick with the degree in Whoring. If she's hanging around, I'm leaving. I can't take another night with her without wanting to shove a book in her mouth and hope she actually reads it instead of being a bubble airhead. _"Oh, hey, Barbie."

"Hey, Jay," Barbie said brightly. _Oh my God, what the fuck is he doing here? This outfit is _so_ not for him and he's probably staring at my tits right now and eww, he's like, so gross and I would never do him…unless he like totally wanted to, then I might consider it, but he's totally not my type…what is my type…oh, who cares Barbie-doll."_

"Wasn't expecting to see you here," Jay said, glancing at Chris. _Holy shit, I've seen some of the divas wear some racy stuff in the ring, but holy hell, who would actually go _out_ in that outfit, one wrong move and her whole chest would be exposed. Does this chick not know how to dress or whatever? Maybe she should move back in with her parents so they can dress her like a human being and not the leader of Planet Whoreitup._

"Well, I was supposed to see Chris," Barbie said, stepping inside and slipping her arm through Chris's. "Right, Chrissy?"

_Chrissy? I think I'm just going to puke right now_.

"Actually," Chris said, extricating his arm from Barbie's, "I told you that I would call you if I was free, but as you can see, I'm not exactly free, I'm with Jay right now so we were going to do a guy's night thing."

"You can do that _any_ night," Barbie said. _I'm not leaving here without Chris! God, Jay, you asshole dickhead, get a fucking clue and leave!_

"I can spend any night with you," Chris told her. "Jay came all the way over here and-"

"But so did I!" she whined. "And I got all dressed up for you and everything because I thought that we could have fun. There's that new club opening in downtown Tampa and I heard that it is supposed to be _awesome_ and people like totally know we live here so if we didn't make an appearance, everyone would think we were totally lame."

"I don't think they'd think we were lame," Chris said. "I think they wouldn't even care."

"Chris," she whined even more. _I want to go out and my boyfriend should want to do what _I_ want to do, all the other boyfriends I've ever had have listened to me, why won't he, what am I doing wrong with him?_

Maybe all the other boyfriends she'd ever had (and she'd never actually told him how many there were, but she was barely into her 20's so how many could there really be?) were too impressed at being with her that they succumbed to her every whim. Chris wasn't that type of guy. He'd never been whipped by a girl before and he didn't intend to start now. It didn't matter how slutty Barbie dressed, he wasn't going out tonight.

"Barbie, I'm very tired. I've had a long trip and I just want to relax tonight, do you understand?"

_No!_ "No," Barbie said, her voice echoing her thoughts.

_Of course she doesn't, idiot that she is_. "I'm going to go chill in the living room," Jay said, pointing towards the living room as he started back there, leaving Barbie and Chris to their argument. _She is so whiny, I swear, I think some of us need to stage and intervention for Chris, no amount of sex could be worth that_. _Hell, Stephanie actually _might _be better than Barbie, even if she is married, at least it would get Chris away from that immature slut._

_Finally, I'm alone with Chris and that jackass isn't totally like over his shoulder._ "Come on, Chris, Jay won't mind if you ditch him for one night. He like has a wife or whatever, doesn't he, why doesn't he just go back home to her?"

"Because maybe he doesn't feel like it and I'm the one who invited him over here," Chris explained, wondering if Barbie even realized it was his house so it wasn't like Jay had barged in here unannounced. Chris had been the one to have him over.

"But you could've had me over," Barbie said, then leaned in close, "and we could have…hung out."

To Barbie, that just meant sex and she was completely insatiable, what guy could possibly keep up? "Look, Barbie, I don't want to spend _all_ my time with you. Do you think you can understand that?"

_Why doesn't he want to spend time with me!_ "Why not? What can Jay do for you that I can't? I guess if he wants to stay, he can stay, but maybe we can just go upstairs for a while."

"Yes, because I'm sure Jay wants to hear us having sex."

"I don't care," Barbie shrugged. _Plenty of people have heard me have sex. Like that one time, when I was still with Phil and we were in ECW and we just couldn't control ourselves, I think everyone heard us, but we didn't care and we weren't even in a bedroom. God, he was really well-hung, I always wondered how he could get that in his ring tights._

Chris quickly tuned her out, that was the _last _thing he needed to hear about. He'd known that she and Phil had been together, but he didn't need to know about _that_ part of their relationship. "I'm sure you don't care," he said with conviction because apparently now he knew, "but I do care and I wanted to spend time with my friends."

"You know, Chris, I have guys who are willing to fall all over me," she told him, folding her arms over her chest and Chris just bet there were guys willing to fall over her. He just wasn't sure he wanted to _be_ one of those guys anymore.

"Barbie, I like you," he said and he did, in a way, he thought he did at least, "but sometimes, we're going to need time apart. Don't you think so? Don't you like to spend time with your girlfriends and go shopping and all of that?"

"I guess so." _What is he trying to do? Of course I like going out with my friends, that's why they're my friends, duh, Chris._

"So I just like to spend time with my friends sometimes too, it doesn't mean that I like you any less," no, it was really more of the thoughts that were making him like her less. The sex was pretty good at best, so why was he staying with her. "You know what, maybe we can talk tomorrow, you know, just get some food, go outside, lie in the grass and-"

"Fuck?" she asked.

Chris bit back his groan, "No, just talk and get to know each other better."

_What a girl_. "I don't want to talk, I want to sleep with you."

"Yes, I think we've established that, but we're together, right and maybe we should get to know each other." He had to find some kind of justification for why he was with this woman. There had to be more to Barbie Blank than this. There just had to be. Her thoughts were just vapid, but there had to be some depth of character that he was missing. It had to be buried deep, he was sure, but he could make it come out, maybe, hopefully. Because if he didn't then he'd have to start asking himself some serious questions.

"That's so _boring_," Barbie said. "We always have fun, Chris, why do we have to start doing boring stuff now?"

"It's not boring, I promise you it won't be boring, okay?"

"Can't you just tell Jay you'll be back later and you can hang out?" Barbie asked, pulling at the hem of Chris's shirt. "I just want to spend time with you and show you off. I swear, all those bitches out there think that they're guy is hot, but I have the hottest guy."

_There, that should work. Guys love hearing that kind of stuff…it helps that Chris is so totally hot. I bet all the divas are totally jealous, except maybe like Michelle because she's married to Mark and he totally gets to use Mr. McMahon's private jet. And maybe Stephanie because she's married to Paul and he has like all the power in the universe, but then, he's pretty butt ugly, but then so is she, but maybe she is jealous too. I should totally flaunt Chris around at Raw, oh yes, and right in front of the Bellas. They think they're _so_ pretty because they're like twins and they are like, two times the whatever. I can't believe they think we're best friends when I would totally ditch them if anyone else came along._

"Thanks for thinking that," Chris said calmly, trying to block out Barbie's thoughts as they became increasingly annoying, "but really, can we just do this tomorrow?"

"But-"

"Barbie, please, I'm asking you nicely here," Chris said. "Jay is sitting in there waiting. Why don't you call someone up, aren't the Bellas in town?" He knew he was baiting her, but hey, if he had to listen to those thoughts, he might as well have a little fun with them when he could.

"Oh yeah," Barbie said.

"And aren't they your best friends?" he asked.

"Yeah, completely," Barbie said. _I hate them, they're ugly_.

"Then you should go out with them."

"Do you just not want me anymore?" Barbie pouted, jutting out her bottom lip and looking like a fool.

"It's not that, of course it's not that, you're gorgeous," he told her dully as he started to push her towards the door. "You know that you're gorgeous and you're really fun to be around and all that, but really, I'm being rude to my guest."

"I'm your guest too!"

"I know, you will be tomorrow and then I'll treat you like a princess," he said, then got a mental image of Stephanie every time he had called her princess. He smirked a little as he recalled her sneer. It was far better than Barbie's perky smile.

_He thinks I'm a princess…wait, then why is he making me leave_.

"Chris, no, I want to stay, I'll hang out with you and Jay!" she demanded. _I'm his girlfriend, he can't do this to me!_

"I will see you tomorrow," he told her slowly, "goodbye, Barbie."

"But…Chris!" she said as he started to close the door.

"Come by around noon," he said through the crack in the door, waving at her indignant face.

_He's going to be sorry!_


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, hope you enjoy, reviews are nice and shiny! :)

* * *

Through slick talking and false promises, he'd managed to stay away from Barbie the rest of the weekend. But there was just no way he could possibly avoid her while they were at work, or so he thought at first. Then he had to believe that he could avoid her. Sure, it meant he'd have to keep glancing over his shoulder and maybe he would have to duck into the occasional storage closet, but he just could not deal with the vapidity of Barbie until this mind thing was over.

Well, _maybe_ when this mind thing was over. He wasn't sure he could stand being with her, reading her thoughts or not. There was just nothing there. At least before this weird curse had happened, he could believe that Barbie just played a role to get where she was. He thought maybe she was shrewd, sleeping her way to the top. Their relationship had never been what you'd call deep, but he thought there was more to Barbie than there seemingly was.

All of these thoughts distracted him enough that he forgot about how he was going to deal with everything while in the ring. It also helped to drown out the thoughts of the backstage area and all the wrestlers. He realized that this thought thing could actually come in handy in some ways. He could go find out what everyone thought of him. Still, the appeal of actually _doing_ that was greater than the actuality of carrying out the actions. Some things were just better left unsaid.

"Would you watch where you're going?" _Asshole_.

He didn't even have to turn around or recognize the voice to know who that was. He turned around and peered right into the face of Paul Levesque. He didn't need to read Paul's thoughts to know what he thought of him, it was pretty damn clear as it was. "I'm not even doing anything," Chris snapped.

"You're standing there like you've got no legs or something." _God, I hate this fucking bastard. _

"When it's a crime to stand somewhere, let me know," Chris said, narrowing his eyes at Paul, "otherwise, you can't really tell me what to do."

"That's what you think, huh?" _I could have this guy fired so fast. Stephanie doesn't even like him, well, she does, but we're fixing that right up. I can't believe she helped this douchebag come back to the WWE. She should've just left well enough alone._

Stephanie liked him? Chris raised his eyebrow, unable to process this information. Sure, Stephanie was…well, she was annoying, mostly, but she had never really tried to be his friend. They had gotten along for a while, but they were never truly friends. She was always so cold to him so of course they weren't friends. But she liked him? That was something interesting he'd never figured. Maybe he'd have to explore that a little more, find out if Paul was right.

"Yeah, it's what I know."

"Do you know who I am?"

"I think I know your name, yeah," Chris said sarcastically. "Unless you really just decided to start going by Hunter, then I guess I have to get used to calling you that, but otherwise, yeah, I know your name."

"I could buy and sell you," Paul said, poking him in the chest.

"Don't touch me," Chris told him.

"Why not?" Paul poked him in the chest again. _I fucking dare this jackass to do something. I will have him fired so fast he won't know what's going on. _"You don't like this?" Another poke.

"I said don't touch me," Chris said and even knowing that Paul was provoking him didn't change the fact that he wanted to beat Paul into the ground. He just had this way of getting under Chris's skin and even when he knew this was what Paul wanted, he couldn't help the feelings that spilled over in his brain. Paul was such an asshole, a blatant one too, which just irked Chris more. He knew some wrestlers talked behind his back and fine, you couldn't control it, but Paul didn't seem to play by any rules. If he wanted to be an asshole, he just was.

"What're you going to do, Irvine?" Paul asked.

"Act like a fucking adult," Chris said, shoving Paul's hand away from him and then walking away. "I don't need to deal with this childish bullshit."

"Yeah, I guess not. That's probably what Barbie is for," Paul called after him. Chris was tempted to turn around and get right in Paul's face. On one hand, it would make him feel better and he knew, even with all of Paul's bravado, he could take Paul out pretty easily (the bulk was just that, bulk, it wasn't equal to actual strength or fight tactics), but on the other hand, it would look like he was fighting for Barbie's honor and he didn't want that to happen. It would only attach her to him further and he was still on the fence with her.

"Whatever, Paul," Chris said, not bothering to turn around. He didn't need this shit in his life right now. Instead, he went into the locker room and scooped up a metal chair, bringing it to a corner and sitting down, leaning back against the wall and just closing his eyes, hoping to get a quick cat nap before he had to be out there for his match. He slowed his breathing down and just tried to relax and let all thoughts (his own and any others) cease and quiet.

_I can't believe they're demoting me. I should be in the main event, damn it._

_Chris is so cool, I wish I were more like him._

Chris opened his eyes just enough to see who was talking at the second thought and chuckled silently as he saw Miz standing at his locker, surreptitiously glancing over at Chris. Of course it was the Miz. That guy had been like a shadow. Once he dumped Barbie, he wouldn't be surprised if Miz picked up his sloppy seconds. Wait, did he say _when_ he dumped Barbie? Oh well, once she was done being useful to him, he would cut her loose. She was young, she'd bounce back. He wasn't going to worry about it right now.

"Woman in the locker room!"

"I've seen everything there is to see in here!" _Damn, not a single one of them is actually naked._

There was only one person that could be and he couldn't believe she'd just walk into the _men's_ locker room to talk to him. He pretended to be asleep so she might not come over, but it was futile. He could feel her presence getting closer and closer and then she was shaking his shoulder, whispering his name to him and shaking his harder. He sighed and opened his eyes into her smiling face.

"You're up."

"You were shaking me," Chris said, "what are you even doing in here?"

"I've been looking all over for you," she said, running her hand down his bare thigh. He was already in his ring tights so he had a lot of skin showing and Barbie was making no bones about what part of his body she wanted.

"For God's sakes, Barb," Chris said, swatting her hand away, "there are other guys in here."

"They know we're having sex," Barbie said. _And it's none of their business if I want to fuck Chris right now. I wonder if they would all leave if I started to pull Chris's tights down…or my tights…no, they would probably want to watch me naked, not that I blame them, I'm pretty hot. Aww, you _are_ pretty hot, Barbie doll._

"I've got to go," Chris said, getting up and walking out of there. He just needed to find somewhere else to hide out for a while. He didn't think she'd actually walk into the men's locker room, but apparently, Barbie had no limits to her stupidity.

Chris managed to keep away from her until he had his match. Unfortunately, he had spent all his time avoiding her and not enough time concentrating on his own thoughts. When his music hit, he went out there, his usual cocky "I'm the best in the world at what I do" demeanor and was…bombarded with so many thoughts that it felt like an avalanche of sound upon his brain. It was actually painful and he tried so hard to drown them out, but he couldn't concentrate because he'd walked out there without concentrating. Maybe if he'd thought…everything was pain and he tried to take a step, but there was too much noise. Chris grabbed his head and collapsed to his knees, trying to drown it out, but it was too much.

He was only vaguely aware of the trainers that came out, trying to ask him if he was okay, "It's my head, just hurts," he managed to say. The backstage seemed to muffle the voices and one of the trainers helped him to his feet and once he was backstage, it seemed to dissipate enough for him to concentrate on his own thoughts. He rubbed at his forehead, trying not to let the buzz around him get to him in the same way.

_God, this is bad._

_What are we going to do?_

_Shit, shit, shit, shit._

He knew the last voice. "Okay, we're calling an audible here people." Stephanie pushed her way through to Chris. "Chris, are you okay enough to pull an angle right now?" _Oh God, please be okay or we're going to have a ton of dead air!_

"Yeah, yeah I am," he said, taking into account how afraid her thoughts sounded. He didn't want the show to suffer because he couldn't handle the voices. "I can probably go out there." If he just focused very, very hard on the ring, on his opponent, on his own thoughts, he probably could do it. He just had to focus.

"Not taking the chance," she told him. _God, the way he was clutching his head. What if something is really wrong with him? I might not completely like the jerk, but I don't want him to be sick._ "Okay, Chris, we're going to have Adam come and attack you, okay? Can you handle that?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, good, he's coming back so be prepared, we're just going to act like you did this on purpose to avoid fighting him, he's cutting a promo right now, then he's coming back here to attack you, we'll keep it brief, we were only giving seven minutes for the match before you walked away anyways to keep your feud going."

"I got it, Stephanie," Chris said. He looked up at her. _Let him be okay, let him be okay…_

He knew it was because the show was live right now, but he tried to assign certain feelings to the tone of her voice. He wore that tone and he kind of liked it. He'd never really looked at Stephanie as anything more than a nuisance before and she still was, but after the thoughts she read the other day, the confusing ones about Paul and then with Jay's thoughts about how he'd rather see Chris with Stephanie than Barbie, he couldn't help himself from tapping in there.

He didn't have time to think as he was hit, lightly, from behind by Adam and fell to his knees, selling the attack. The cameras caught them for a few minutes before someone yelled cut and Adam was immediately helping Chris up. "Hey, man, are you okay?" _What the hell was that on the ramp?_

"Yeah, I'm okay, I just…" He had to think fast. "I had a migraine earlier and I guess I didn't realize how bad it was, the lights just…it was pretty bad."

"Dude, I hope you're okay." _Maybe being with Barbie has made him so stupid that he's getting headaches over nothing now. Dude, that was pretty mean of you to think that, Chris is a cool guy, it's Barbie that's not cool. I can't believe she walked into the men's locker room._

"I'm fine."

"Doesn't matter," Stephanie pushed her way through the trainers again. "You're going to the trainer's and getting checked out."

"I'm really okay, Steph, I promise," he said, "it was just a momentary thing."

"No," she told him. _God, he is so stubborn! Would he just go already!_

"Okay, I'll go," he said, taking in her irate though and how that irate thought would soon turn into her irate words. Better just to go along with her now.

"I'm walking with you to make sure you actually go," Stephanie told him. _Knowing him, he'll probably just go back to his locker room and ignore me. It wouldn't be the first time he ignored me._

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, forgetting that it was her thought he was asking about.

"I don't trust that you'll actually go," she answered, thinking that he was talking about going to the trainer's room.

"Oh yeah, well, I would have," he said as she grabbed his arm and started marching him to the trainer's, the actual trainers trailing behind him. "You don't have to hold onto me, I can walk."

"Yeah, if you saw yourself collapse, you'd be holding onto your arm too," Stephanie told him. _Stubborn ass. I wonder if he has a concussion that just went undiagnosed. Did he have a match last week? Yes, he did, but I don't seem to recall him hitting his head anywhere particularly hard, but then he might have gotten whiplash._

"I don't have a concussion," he told her.

"Huh?"

"Just letting you know, I don't have a concussion," he repeated. "I know that it might be a concern of yours."

"Oh, well, yeah, I guess it was," she said as she opened the door to the trainer's and lead him inside. She took a seat by the door.

"Are you staying here and watching?" he asked.

"Yes, yes, I am." _Of course I want to know what's wrong with him. Besides, it'll mean that I don't have to talk to Paul for a while and that's always a plus in my book. _

Chris narrowed his eyes. Something was up with Stephanie. He wanted to know what.

Maybe this damn thought thing could finally come in handy.


	6. Chapter 6

"What're you up to?"

"Excuse me?" Stephanie looked up at him from where she was sitting in catering, reading a book. _Man, I hoped to get a few more chapters in, but I guess my work is never done. And what is Chris even doing here? He never just comes up to talk to me unless he wants something. I'm so tired of people only trying to talk to me when they want something._ "I'm kind of busy."

"Doing what?" he took a seat across from her. He knew what she was doing, he'd just heard it, but he had to pretend like he couldn't read her mind, although he could guess since she had the book right there.

"I'm reading," she answered. _What the hell does it look like I'm doing?_

"I don't mean to bug you," he told her, "I just thought I could come and talk to you."

_He wants to talk to me? Yes, he wants something. There's no other reason why he would come talk to me. We're not friends, we've never been friends, even though I know that we got along for a while there. But then, of course, once our storyline was over, it was like out of sight, out of mind. Not that you care because it's just Chris and it's not like he's anything special. God, why is he staring at me so intently? Oh no, do I have something on my face? I will die if I have something on my face. Okay, just lick your lips like they're dry or something and he'll never know the difference. Okay, slowly now, okay, there, if there was anything…why the hell is smirking at me now!_

Chris was smirking because he found her thoughts adorable. He never thought that he would think that about Stephanie, but after dealing with Barbie's thoughts for days, this was a welcome change. Stephanie had spent a whole few minutes with him and she hadn't thought about sex once. It was a relief after Barbie's vapid thoughts about getting a dick in her mouth at all times. Plus, Stephanie's rambling was so self-consciously sweet. He never figured her to be so insecure, but her thoughts were exposing her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked critically. _Please don't say I have something on my mouth, please don't say I have something on my mouth…_

"Nothing, just looking at you is all."

_Why would he be looking at me, what does he know?_ "Well, that's a little weird."

Chris was now wondering if there _was_ something to know. The way she thought that thought sounded like she knew something or had some kind of secret that nobody was supposed to know. The more he read Stephanie's thoughts, the more intrigued he became about her. "I didn't mean to make you think I was weird."

"So let's cut to the chase," she said, putting on her business face, "what do you want and why do you think I could give it to you?" _Might as well get this over with._

"I didn't want anything actually," he said, "I just saw you sitting here and I thought that you looked like you were alone and I wasn't really doing anything either, so you know, thought I'd come see what you were doing."

"No ulterior motives," she said incredulously. _Okay, what the hell does he really want? There's no way there aren't any ulterior motives. It can't be sex, usually guys are more blatant than that, plus he's with Barbie, or so I thought and well, she's young and pretty, if a little dim, but still. But then, he does probably want…I don't know, a raise, maybe…_

Chris was a little put out that Stephanie didn't seem to think she was pretty. Even if he hated her guts, he could always admit that she was pretty. "Actually, there is an ulterior motive."

_I knew it, I knew there had to be something that he wanted, no guy just comes up to you and sits down with you if they don't want something from you. That's exactly how Paul works. When he wants something it's all…Stephanie, don't dwell on that. This is not the time to get all caught up in your thoughts._

"I thought so," she said smugly.

"I wanted to thank you for last week," he told her. "I know that you were put on the spot when my migraine hit, but you dealt with it and I wanted to thank you for taking me to the trainer's. You really didn't have to do that."

_Wait, _that's_ what he wanted to come over here for, to thank me? I don't…there must be something more to this. I don't trust him, I can't trust…but what if he is just trying to say thank you. Oh my God, Stephanie, don't be an idiot, say you're welcome._

"Well, you're one of our biggest guys here and I couldn't not make sure you were okay," she told him. _Stephanie, come on now! The guy genuinely thanks you and then you say that, like it was just business…isn't it, though? He's just your employee._

Chris decided to help her thoughts out, "It meant a lot to me and I know that you might think that you did it because it was your job, but I like to think that it was because you actually care about the people around here."

"I do," she said, "I mean, you guys…I do."

_Okay, you didn't sound so stupid that time…oh, who are you kidding, you did, you did and now…"_

He interrupted her thoughts, pressing his hand on top of hers and giving her a kind smile. He had no idea Stephanie was so…not Stephanie-like. He'd always thought she was absolutely in control of everything, even her thoughts. Instead, she was nothing like he thought and he wondered if she'd always been like this or if something had made her like this. And if someone had done this to her, he only needed one guess as to whom it might be.

"This is where you say you're welcome," he told her.

She laughed and closed her eyes, "So how dumb did I just come across as, really bad?"

"No, you didn't."

"You're welcome," she finally said. _Okay, this is officially weird…nice, but a little weird._

"See, not so hard is it?"

"No, so, um, are you okay to go out there tonight?"

Chris nodded. He'd been practicing all week. He'd gone to the mall and other crowded places to acclimate himself to situations such as these. If he just focused on a task at hand, buying something at the mall, his match, he was usually able to drown out the thoughts, let them become background noise, much like the cheering or booing her heard during matches. He just needed to block them all out and concentrate and since he'd let himself be around larger and larger numbers, he was confident he could survive this match.

"Are you sure?" _I really don't want a repeat of last week, that was so scary, just seeing him nearly collapse like that, I don't think I could take another episode like that one._

"I'm sure," he told her, giving her a reassuring smile that he hoped would convince her. Suddenly, Stephanie pulled her hand away from his and he looked questioningly at her, but his questions were answered a moment later when his girlfriend plopped her ass down unceremoniously next to him.

"I have been looking everywhere for you, it's like you were avoiding me," Barbie pouted. _Why the hell is he talking to Stephanie and not to me? I've barely gotten to talk to him all week and this bitch thinks she can just up and talk to him whenever she wants? I don't think so. She better not mess with him…but then again, she is married and old…and really kind of fat…_

"I haven't," he told her. "Believe me."

_Well, if he says that, then it's probably true, I think… but if he's not avoiding me, why haven't we had sex in _days_? What is _wrong_ with him!_

_I don't know what any guy really sees in her. I mean, sure, she's young, but…do guys really think about sex that much because I figure that if they do, then I guess Barbie is definitely what they would be looking for. It sucks getting older and having to compete with these girls around here. God, if I was more…I don't know, less confident or something, I would be intimidated…ugh, Stephanie, don't be intimidated by her. Just because you were having a nice conversation for once…stop it!_

The difference between their thoughts was staggering and Chris looked between the two women. They were so different, actually, everyone's thoughts were so different from Barbie's. It wasn't just Stephanie, it seemed like Barbie was actually just the stupidest person in the entire company. Not that he'd read everyone's thoughts, but she was surely in for the running of first place. He really shouldn't think that about the girl he was currently dating, but her thoughts had affected him in a way he didn't think possible.

At first it was easy to excuse all of Barbie's shortcomings. After his divorce, it had just been easier to turn off the part of his brain that looked for intelligence and something deeper than passable looks and spreadable legs. He hadn't wanted anymore. Eventually though, he was going to face some serious decisions about his life, especially in the face of Barbie's thoughts. It would be easy, sure, to just continue living this life and being shallow, but is that what he wanted in the long run? 

The divorce hadn't been easy and it was easy to run away from facing up to everything that came after a divorce. "Chrissy, don't you think we should go?" _Maybe if I can get him alone somewhere, he'll want to actually _do_ something with me for once. I can't go this long without having sex. It's like, totally unnatural, I think I read somewhere that the human brain just like, won't totally do anything if it doesn't get sex._

"I was talking to Stephanie," Chris told her. _Ugh, seriously, what the hell does he want with her? She is ugly and just the boss or whatever, even though she only got that because she's Daddy's little girl. I bet she wouldn't even be here if it weren't for that. She's not even that pretty._

"It's okay, Chris, I can get back to my book," Stephanie told him. _Plus, it would mean that I wouldn't have to deal with Barbie, one of my father's more…frivolous hires. One of these days I'm going to take control and when that day comes, I swear on everything that I'm going to at least look for some talent when dealing with divas. Unless, of course, Paul tries to undermine me again._

Chris liked these Stephanie thoughts. She wasn't as insecure right now. She was more in charge now and he liked these thoughts better than the ones she'd had earlier. It was a little strange how flustered she had seemed with him and how bold she seemed now. He wondered if there was something to read within those earlier thoughts, but he didn't have time because Barbie's hand was trying to get to his crotch and he had to reach under the table to swat her away because damn it, they were in the middle of catering right now. Barbie may have some fetish for public sex, but he really didn't right now.

"See, she has a book!" Barbie said brightly. _She can just go back to her nerdy, little book and stop trying to mess with my boyfriend. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on her. I bet she's exactly like everyone used to say about her._

"That was a storyline," Chris spat out, then realized what he'd said and shook his head. "Sorry, I was just thinking aloud."

"Okay," Barbie said, looking at him weirdly. _Weirdo…_

"Seriously, Chris, I'll be fine, it was nice talking to you," Stephanie said kindly. _Go away, whore, go away, whore, go away, whore!_

It was like Stephanie was sending mind daggers to Barbie and he had to laugh a little at that. "Um, yeah, I guess I'll see you later, Steph, and thanks again for last week."

"It wasn't a problem, gotta look out for everyone, right?" she told him. _Okay, so he really was just being nice, good way to just automatically jump to conclusions, Stephanie._

And there were those thoughts again. Chris got up and started walking out of catering, barely taking note that Barbie was following him. He kept glancing over his shoulder at Stephanie, who was back to being engrossed in her book. He was out in the hallway when Barbie tugged on his t-shirt sleeve. He turned back to her and realized she was still there and she looked peeved.

"What was that back there?" she asked. "What did she do for you last week, did you like fuck her?" _If he slept with her, I will be like so pissed and I will like go rip her hair out_.

"No, she actually came with me to the trainer to see if I was okay," he told her angrily. "I was thanking her for looking out for me."

"She wants in your pants," Barbie said knowingly. _Right out of her head!_

"No, she wasn't, she was being friendly, God, get a grip, Barbie," Chris told her, feeling like he was talking to a child. Yes, there were definitely some decisions to be made in the very near future. He was going to sit down tonight and assess the situation.

"I'm sorry," Barbie pouted. "I just…you're so amazing and I don't want to lose you." _Or that nice dick._

Chris rolled his eyes, "Yeah, okay, good."

"So can we go somewhere?"_ Oh, look, there's Ted DiBiase. I've never been with him before, I bet he's a pretty good fuck too. He's definitely got the looks, which is kind of weird because his dad is so ugly, but Ted is definitely hot…oh wait, was Chris saying something, you better pay attention to…oh my God, there's Randy Orton, what I wouldn't give to get into his pants. I bet he fucks like a stallion. God, I need sex, why is Chris holding out on me_.

Chris looked at her in disgust. "You know what, Barbie, no, we can't go somewhere, I've got work, you do too, I'll see you later."

Oh yeah, he was coming to some decisions.


	7. Chapter 7

"So what do we know about Stephanie McMahon, more specifically Stephanie and Paul?"

Nattie looked over at Chris like he was some crazy person just come up to her out of the blue, which, he was. "Well, hello to you too, Chris." _What is _up_ with him? I mean, yeah, we're friends, but uh, weirdo!_

"Hey, sorry," he said and he really didn't want to read Nattie's thoughts. He didn't know why, but sometimes, it just felt, well, no, he knew why, he felt like he was spying on people and it was always strange to spy on people and know so many of their secrets. Like he _really_ didn't need to know that Mike liked to wear his girlfriend's underwear sometimes; there were some boundaries he'd crossed that he didn't want to cross at all. "I just thought-"

"That since I'm a woman, I would know all the good gossip?" Nattie asked, peering down at him. _I think I'll have a little fun with him._

Chris was glad in that moment that he knew she was joking. "Of course, because that's all you're really good for." He made sure to make his tone joking so she would know that he was merely joking with her.

"Why do you want to know about Stephanie of all people? You guys aren't even friends, are you? Are you holding out on me?" she asked playfully, nudging him in the shoulder. The bartender at the bar a bunch of the guys and divas were hanging out in came over and Nattie pointed to her beer and then at Chris. The bartender nodded and left again.

"I just want to know about her situation."

"You _know_ her situation, Chris, she's with Paul, married to Paul," Nattie said, "this is not new information, they've been married for years. Plus, you're with Barbie, why you're with Barbie, I will never figure out." _God, if Chris wanted to get some, he could have found someone better, which is pretty much every female on the Earth. Barbie is so gross. If he only knew how she talks about her conquests _all_ the time_.

Well that intrigued Chris. Barbie talked about her conquests. Forgetting Stephanie for a moment, he wanted to focus on that, but how could he bring it up without Nattie getting suspicious. Of course, if she did get suspicious, there was no way she'd believe he could read her thoughts. That was just too out there and yet, it was true. What did Barbie say? Did she talk about him? Did she reveal all the details of their relationship? Just what did talking about her conquests entail?

"Yeah, I'm with Barbie…I guess," he just decided on the truth. This seemed to catch Nattie's attention and she raised an eyebrow in silent question. "I don't know, she's just…"

"Oh, you're figuring out that she's, well, I don't know how to put it nicely because there's not a lot that's nice about her." _She's disgusting, no-brained, ugh, now you're just being a bitch, don't be a bitch, don't be a bitch._

"What's she like when I'm not around?" Chris asked.

"I don't know how she is around you other than she hangs of you like she's a drape or something," Nattie told her. "She's really annoying though, no offense because I know she's your girlfriend, but damn it, Chris, she's annoying. She constantly talks about…well, I don't want to say anything because you're with her and I don't want to be that person." _I wish I could be because he deserves to know what she says._

"No, please, tell me, I've been thinking about breaking up with her anyways so I'm really kind of just looking for a reason," Chris admitted. If anyone could keep it to herself, it was Nattie. While she probably heard all the gossip, she never participated in it, which he admired her for. There were a lot, a _lot_ of people in this company who couldn't keep their mouths shut.

"Oh thank God you're thinking about that. She just brags about how she's slept with all these main-eventers and how she knows that she'll be around for however long she wants," Nattie said, "I really shouldn't tell you, but…you can do better, Chris. Wait, let's get back to what this was really about, what is this about you and Stephanie?" _Okay, I may not like Barbie, but I don't think that Chris should be with a married woman either. I know the guy was divorced, but seriously, doesn't he have _any_ standards?_

Chris was slightly insulted, but brushed it off. "I don't want to be with her. I've just become friendlier with her. She looked out for me the other week when I got injured. She was there to take me to the trainer and make sure I was okay. She's actually not as bad as I thought she was and I was just wondering about her and Paul."

"But why?" _Chris, please don't think about being with her, you're only asking for a world of trouble if you are!_ Nattie's face was actually matching what she was thinking, a pained look on his face.

"I don't want to be with her, I swear to you I don't want to be with her. I just worry about her, that's all."

"Worry about her?" _I've never seen Chris worry about Stephanie before. Maybe he wants to know because he does want to be with her and he's just trying to act like he isn't trying to be with her. I still think this is really weird._

"I don't know, she just seems kind of off, I'm not trying to make something out of nothing. I was just wondering if you knew anything about her relationship with Paul. I'm not saying he's abusive or anything, I'm really, really not saying that at all," Chris was quick to say. He never suspected Paul of being an abuser, at least not physically, but he seemed more…neglectful.

"I really don't know anything, I really don't look at her or him or their relationship," Nattie admitted. _I try to keep myself away from that kind of idle gossip, I don't give a shit what goes on with people, Chris should know this._

"Look, I know you're not a gossip, but I know that you hear things and I'm not gossiping right now, I'm really just wondering about her. I mean, she's always kind of off to herself-"

"Did you ever think that's by choice?" _That's maybe just how she is. I mean, she is one of the bosses so maybe she just doesn't want to associate with people, that's totally her prerogative._

"Maybe, but I was just wondering if there seemed to be any tension between them."

"I don't know, sorry, Chris. But maybe talk to her I guess," Nattie shrugged, "as long as you aren't trying to steal her away or anything. Because if you are, then you are worse than dating Barbie."

"Yeah, I've heard that before."

"Then make sure you take that to heart. The woman is married and you can't-"

"I don't want to be with her!" Chris protested. _Well, he sounds like he's telling the truth, but then isn't it awfully convenient that he would want to break up with Barbie right when he's asking me about Stephanie_.

"Okay, I guess, well, I have heard that Paul has a bit of a wandering eye, but if he had slept with any of the divas, they aren't talking and knowing the divas that we work with they would absolutely be talking if they had so I think he just looks, but never touches." _And why would he when he has the plum position of being Stephanie's husband._

"Thanks, Nattie," Chris said, "I'll leave you alone now."

"Be careful, Chris, please, I don't want you doing something stupid that will get you into trouble." _I care about this guy, but he will be playing with fire…stay out of it, Nattie_.

"Don't worry."

At the next show, Chris sought out Stephanie's office. He found himself drawn to her and he couldn't stay away. Her thoughts, he wanted to solve the mystery that was Stephanie McMahon and he knew that he should probably leave well enough alone, but he just couldn't help himself when it came to her, which was a revelation that surprised him greatly. He'd never figure that Stephanie of all people would be the person whose thoughts he wanted to read the most.

He was getting much better at blocking out people's thoughts. It was kind of like he was a deaf person and then when he started hearing everyone's thoughts, he got hearing aids that helped him hear for the first time. At first, all the sounds were there and he didn't know how to turn some of them out. Now he could though. He could pretty much live normally until this "curse" was lifted. He walked down the hallway, letting the noise just become a dull buzz in his brain.

"Knock, knock," Chris said jovially so as not to disturb her.

"What the hell do you want?" Paul asked as Chris opened the door further. He looked around. Stephanie wasn't there, but her idiot of a husband was and that pissed Chris off for some reason. He didn't want to talk to Paul, he wanted to talk to Stephanie. _What the hell is this jack-off doing in here? I swear to God, I can't escape his sorry ass._

"Where's Stephanie?" The best way to deal with Paul's thoughts were the same way to deal with Paul in general, ignore it and move on.

"Does it look like she's here?" he asked.

"Yeah, I can see that," Chris said, an edge to his voice, "but where is she?"

"I'm not her fucking babysitter," Paul countered. _Like I give a shit where she is, she's working, which is exactly what she's supposed to be doing. God, doesn't this dipshit know that?_

Chris ran his tongue along his teeth, Paul's thoughts getting harder and harder to ignore. If he could just get one good punch on this jackass, he would feel so much better. One day, he knew that he and Paul would come to blows. It would be reminiscent of the altercation he had with Goldberg, but one day, it was going to happen.

"Do you know when she'll be back?"

"Did you not hear what I just said?" Chris just tuned out the thoughts, he had to because what Paul was thinking right now was so bad that Chris was two seconds away from pouncing on him and beating him into a bloody pulp.

Paul was saved from that beating when Stephanie walked in, a stack of papers under her arm. She looked between the two men in confusion. _What is Chris doing here? Why is he always around here? I don't get it, why the sudden interest in me? It's kind of weird. And now Paul is here too. Awkward much, Stephanie? _"What's going on, Chris, did you need something?"

"No, I just wanted to talk to you," he told her, giving her a smile.

_What the fuck is this bastard doing? This is _my_ wife!_ "Hey, babe, I thought we could go eat lunch or something, you hungry?" Paul asked her.

"I'm not in the mood to eat, I've got things to do right now," Stephanie told him. _Just go away, please, just go away and leave me alone because if I have to hear how you should be in the title match one more time, I think I will scream._

Chris smirked. Even Paul's own wife couldn't stand to be around him. He knew there was something going on and he couldn't figure out why Stephanie would stay with a man she so obviously despised. Maybe that was what he wanted to find out. There had to be some reason because Stephanie's thoughts were less than complimentary towards the man who she was supposedly meant to be with for the rest of her life.

"Well, I'm hungry," Paul protested.

"Then go eat," Stephanie told him rationally. _Why does he have to act like a child all the time? And in front of Chris too, as if he needed more reason to be weird around me._

"Fine, whatever, I'm outta here," Paul said, knocking into Chris on his way out. Chris glared at his back, but didn't do anything else. Instead, he turned to Stephanie, who was looking at him apologetically.

"I guess you have to cut up his food for him?" Chris joked.

Stephanie actually laughed. "He can be a bit of a baby." _Understatement_.

Chris was thinking the exact same thing. "I just wanted to come say hey, see how you were."

"Chris, what's going on with you?" she asked him. _Why is he so friendly to me now, why is he even interested in me, I just don't get it, why? It can't be because he finds me attractive, he has a girlfriend who everyone thinks is gorgeous. If they only knew how she really was._

Chris didn't even know what was going on with him. The didn't stop him from smiling at her. He just wanted to figure her out. He just wanted to know everything about her, inside and out. Maybe he was cursed in other ways too. Maybe his curse was to figure out what made Stephanie McMahon tick because right now that was the only thing he wanted to figure out. He couldn't tell her that though, so he had to be safe about it.

"I just thought we could be friends."


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks as always for the reviews. Enjoy. :)

* * *

"So hey."

"Chris, what are you doing here _again_?" Stephanie asked, looking up at him. _I can't seem to get rid of him and it's starting to get a little weird. Why is he suddenly so interested in me? I just don't get it. I mean, it's almost like he's attracted to me or something, but…that's ridiculous, stop thinking that, the more you think isn't going to make it true._

Chris was confused for a second. Did Stephanie _want_ him to be attracted to her? He raised his eyebrows a little. That was odd…or maybe it wasn't so odd. He'd never read Stephanie's thoughts before, maybe at some point she had been attracted to him. He _had_ been married for such a long time and there had really been no in-between for them. He'd been with Jessica when he first came into the company and now she was with Paul and he was sort of with Barbie.

It was odd to think that she might be attracted to him, but flattering all the same. Stephanie was an attractive woman and he didn't need to be single to think that nor did she. She was seemingly pretty cool and he was surprised she'd settled for that jackass, Paul, when she could probably have her pick of men out there. Knowing that she might want him most of all was a bit of an ego boost.

"I told you, I just want to be friends with you. It has been brought to my attention that we've worked together so many times and yet, we don't really know each other that well and it's kind of a shame, don't you think?" he said charmingly.

"Um, I guess," she told him. _It would make more sense if this were like 2001 or something, but it's not 2001 and it's just a little strange._

"I just liked working with you, that's all. I swear to God, I'm not trying to pull anything here, I swear to God," he tried to reassure her. _I want to believe him, I do, but it's just so weird and you have to stay guarded around here, you know that, Steph. He does sound kind of nice though…I guess…_

"Okay, I guess I believe you," she said tentatively.

"So since Paul is going out for lunch, why don't I take you out to lunch?" he asked of her.

_Now he wants to take me out to lunch? Well, it would be nice to stick it to Paul. He always gets to go out and have fun and I'm stuck waiting for him. You know, it would be good to get out of here for a while, there's only so much fluorescent lighting someone can take. _"Are you sure?" _I just have to ask because…weird!_

"Yeah, I'm absolutely positive that I want to take you out to lunch, besides," and now he was using her thoughts to his advantage and he didn't necessarily like doing it, but…there was something drawing him in about Stephanie and though he couldn't explain it right now, he wanted to find out more about it. He didn't want to explore the possibility that he was attracted to her as well, but he did want to explore a friendship with her and find out why she thought the way she did. "it wouldn't be fair for Paul to go out to lunch and you have to sit here."

"You're right," she told him, "let's go."

"Just so you know, this is my treat," he told her.

"Your treat?" _Okay, this sounds too much like a date._

"Yeah, my treat, think of it as a sign of friendship that I'm willing to spend money on you and you can get whatever you want to eat and drink. I think I saw a little café up the road if you don't mind that kind of food. We could always find some fancy French place if that's what you prefer."

Stephanie laughed, "No, a café sounds fine. I actually like getting breakfast at all hours of the day." _He's being so nice, I don't think I've had anyone be this nice to me in a long time. It's good to have someone actually want to spend time with you._

Chris felt sorry for her then and resisted the urge to grab her hand and give it a squeeze. It would probably make her think this was a date even more not to mention it would be stepping over a lot of boundaries if he just went for it, but the sentiment was there. Obviously Stephanie was stuck in some bad marriage limbo with Paul. He wanted to know why, though, she stayed with him. He was starting to get the feeling that Stephanie was a lot more insecure than she let on and he hoped to break her out of that slump.

"Oh, so you're one of those people who likes to have breakfast for dinner?" he asked.

"You caught me," she joked. "There's something so comforting about having breakfast, all warm and toasty."

"Then you should try some of my buttermilk blueberry pancakes, I'm famous for them. Well, I was famous for them, I used to make them for Jessica whenever I was home from working, kind of a special treat thing," he said, now feeling odd that he'd brought that up.

"That had to be rough, huh, divorce, I mean," she said. _I can't imagine getting a divorce, I mean, I could, but just the thought of suddenly being alone again…that's so scary._

Chris wanted to tell her that it could also feel liberating. Being stuck in a bad marriage was not ideal. "I guess it was, but it was time."

"But now you're with Barbie…"

_Everyone says that Chris has kind of been a jerk since he's been with Barbie, but I don't know, I don't really see him being a jerk to me or anything. In fact, this is the nicest he's been in a really long time. I don't think Barbie is the cause for that though. I heard all the rumors about her wanting to fuck Chris wherever, I think everyone has heard those rumors, but I don't know, Chris seems actually kind of sweet in a weird way._

"Yeah, I'm with Barbie," Chris said, thinking about what Stephanie had just thought. Had he been a jerk when he was with Barbie? Well, he wouldn't be in this situation if he wasn't a jerk. The whole reason he'd been cursed was because he'd acted like an idiot and now he was learning to regret his actions. He didn't like the way he'd been when he was with Barbie. He was acting like he was the shit and everyone was beneath him, but that wasn't him. It hadn't been him before the divorce and he would like nothing more than to get back to the person he had been.

"She seems, I mean…she's nice." _Nice in the worst sense of the word_. Chris laughed at that. "Did I say something funny?"

"No, it's nothing," he told her. They continued walking down the hallway when the woman in question stepped out of from around a corner.

_Speak of the devil_.

"Chris, there you are!" Barbie said, her voice almost petulant. "I've been looking everywhere for you, where the hell were you?" _Ugh, why is he is with this bitch again? I swear, if she's trying to get all up on him, I'm going to pull her fucking hair out, if that's even her real hair because everyone who's anyone wears extensions…wait, what am I saying, her hair is so ratty it has to be her own_.

"I was around," he said noncommittally.

"Well, I'm hungry, take me out to eat," she demanded. _And ditch the bitch…hey, that rhymes, I'm like so totally smart sometimes_.

"I'm going out to lunch with Stephanie," Chris told her.

"What?" _Oh no, he isn't, what is with this stupid whore!_

Chris was at the end of his patience with her and he counted down from ten, but before he could get to six, Stephanie interrupted his own thoughts, "Chris, you can take her out, it's cool, I don't mind." _She could have asked him nicely, what does he _see_ in her, what do any guys see in her, she must be fantastic in bed for someone as nice as Chris to put up with all of this._

The thing was, she kind of wasn't fantastic in bed, but it just seemed easier to deal with her than to dump her, which might make her even more horrible. "I already invited you to lunch, Barbie, you can be without me for one meal, go find a diva or two and have lunch."

"You're ditching me for _her_?" Barbie scoffed in disbelief. _Oh no, you aren't, Chris Irvine!_

"I'm not ditching you, I'm simply going out to lunch with a friend," Chris said. "Now if you'll excuse us, we're running a little late and I will talk to you later, okay."

"But-"

"Later, okay?" Chris said, looking at her.

"Fine," she said snottily. _You are going to regret this, Chris, you are going to regret this so bad!_

Chris led Stephanie away from his girlfriend and then turned to her to apologize, "I'm really sorry for that. She's just immature sometimes."

"Well, she's young," Stephanie said. _Old enough to be your daughter._

Chris didn't say anything and they walked in silence to his car. He did the gentlemanly thing of opening the door for her and they chatted in the car about music and other topics that didn't pertain to Barbie or Paul or anything to do with wrestling. He found that Stephanie liked metal music, not as much as him (nobody could even really come close among his colleagues), but that she had been to a few concerts here and there. He promised to take her to a concert sometime and introduce her to some of his music friends. She even confessed to enjoying his own metal albums with Fozzy, which only served to boost his ego even more.

The funny thing with Stephanie was that when he was engaged in conversation like this, her thoughts almost seemed to fade into the background. He enjoyed talking to her so much that her thoughts became inconsequential, like he simply didn't need to hear them and it was refreshing to be around someone without their own thoughts invading his mind.

Lunch was equally fun. They both decided to get breakfast, Stephanie got a short stack of pancakes while Chris got corned beef hash and they ended up sharing and trying each other's foods and the conversation was light and easy and Chris wondered why they hadn't been friends before this and when he did choose to read Stephanie's mind, he found that she was thinking the exact same thing.

"I had fun," Stephanie said as they walked back to the arena through the parking lot. _That was the best time I've had in such a long time, I can't even remember the last time it was so easy to talk to someone. I can't believe that person was Chris Irvine of all people. Who'd have thought that?_

"I had fun too," Chris said, "remind me to bring you my iPod so you can listen to some of the song that I was telling you about. They may be a bit heavier than you're used to, but I really think you'll enjoy them."

"I'd love to hear them, I trust your taste since you're like a walking, talking metal music dictionary," she joked. _It's crazy how much he knows, I bet he knows the same amount about wrestling, which is crazy, I wonder how he remembers it all._

There was that ego boost again. "Great," he said, "you know, we should do this again sometime, I didn't realize we had so much in common."

"Neither did I and it's weird because we've worked together so much, you'd think we'd know these kinds of things," Stephanie shrugged and her thoughts faded away again. It was almost like he couldn't hear them at all. It was almost strange now that he'd gotten so used to hearing everyone's thoughts.

"I'm glad we went out to lunch then."

"Me too."

"Oh hey, if you aren't doing anything, come to my locker room right now and you can listen to them."

"Sure," she said, then furrowed her brow. _What's that sound?_ "Do you hear something?"

"What?"

"Um, it sounds like someone groaning in pain or something," Stephanie said, "do you hear that?"

Chris quieted down for a minute and listened. He did hear something like someone groaning. "Yeah, I do, what could that be?"

"I don't know, do you think someone's hurt or something?" Stephanie asked as they started to follow the sound. "I know that some of the guys like to jog around the arena, maybe one of them fell or something, come on."

Stephanie grabbed Chris's hand and they started towards the sound, following the loudness of it and into some of the parked cars in the area. Stephanie was the one who spotted it first and she turned towards Chris, her eyes wide. "Oh, it's nothing, come on, just…people in a car, if you catch my drift." _Oh my God, Chris is going to freak out, I've got to get him out of here._

"What's going on?" he tried to push past her, but she wasn't budging.

"Nothing, just a couple of people having sex, come on, let's just go inside." _He shouldn't find out like this._

"It's Barbie, isn't it?" Chris asked and Stephanie dropped all pretense. "It's okay."

"What?"

"I was going to dump her anyways, this just makes it a hell of a lot easier."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing, hope you enjoy the chapter and if you like it, think about leaving a review or if you didn't like it, think about leaving a flame. ;)

* * *

"Chris, come on."

Chris looked down as he felt her warm hand nestle into his. He looked up at her, "Come on where?"

"We'll go inside the arena and we'll just go to my office, okay?" she said as if she was talking to a child. _That poor guy. I mean, how could she do that to him right here in the parking lot in broad daylight? What kind of person _does_ that? He must be in shock right now, that's why he's saying how this is easier. They've been dating for a while, how can this be easy for him?_

"I'm okay, Stephanie," Chris told her. This really _did_ make it easier on him. Ever since he'd been able to read her thoughts, the appeal of Barbie had decreased steadily until he wanted to be as far away from her as possible. She was the most vapid, petty, ugly person he'd ever met in his entire life. He knew she was young, but the way she behaved and thought was inexcusable.

"Chris, you might say you're okay, but—"

"I'm really okay," Chris told her again, cutting her off before she could say anything else. _I don't understand how he's okay. I mean, if I caught Paul cheating on me…I'd be pretty upset._ "I'm not married to her or anything."

Stephanie looked up at him sharply, but then shook her head a little, more to herself than to him and then looked away. "Are you sure? I mean, this is not something that you should…I mean, why don't we just go to my office and you can grab that music and we can listen to it."

"Yeah, that sounds good," he said, "but I wanted to do something first."

"Chris?" _What could he possibly want to do?_ Chris started walking towards the car as Stephanie's thoughts became dimmer as he got further and further away from her. _Oh my God, what is he going to do? Is he going to beat up whoever Barbie is with? Should I get security or something? I don't want to cause a scene here. _"Chris!"

"It's okay," he told her, then walked right up to the window where a guy's back was pressed against the window. Chris knocked on the window and then leaned down a little. Barbie looked over the guy's shoulder and her eyes widened as she pressed herself against the guy, who looked over his shoulder. It turned out the mystery guy was Jake Hager, otherwise known as Jack Swagger, which was perfect since the guy was married. Chris gave them both the thumbs up before walking away and towards Stephanie.

_Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck…_

_Serves that jerk right…_

"Come on, Steph, I think I was going to show you some music in my locker room," Chris said, grabbing Stephanie's hand and pulling her towards the entrance.

"Chris," she said, but then didn't say anything more when he smiled at her. _He really does have such a nice smile and he was so nice to me today. Nicer than anyone has been to me in a really long time. I think people just take me for granted, like I'm someone that doesn't have feelings. Oh great, there you go again, acting like your problems are the biggest problems in the world. Keep some focus, Stephanie, if this is your biggest worry, you've got it pretty good. Now I feel guilty as hell. I think I'll volunteer over the weekend to make myself feel better._

"You volunteer?" Chris asked before he realized that Stephanie had thought all of that and not said it out loud. He cursed under his breath as Stephanie studied his face as they walked.

_Did I say that out loud? Oh my God, Stephanie, can you look more stupid?_ "Oh, um, I didn't mean to say anything, it's nothing really," Stephanie shook her head. "I really don't…it's nothing."

"No, actually, that's honestly pretty cool, what kind of volunteering do you do? I never see anything about you volunteering and I figured if you were, they would have filmed it or something."

"Nobody films it, I don't do it to, you know, look good in front of the cameras or anything," Stephanie said humbly, not wanting to sound like she was bragging or anything. "It's really nothing. I just sometimes go help out at the food kitchen or I read to kids at the library, but my favorite is when I help out at the local animal shelter."

"I never figured you for an animal lover," Chris said.

_Well, I never said it so I guess he wouldn't._ "Yeah, I love animals, I always have. I just can't have any at the moment, but when I don't travel with the show, I actually do foster animals until they can find a more permanent home. Paul hates it though, but that's just because he's a neat freak."

"His loss, animals are awesome," Chris said, "when Jessica and I were married, we had a couple dogs, she has them now for obvious reasons, but I do get to see them every once in a while."

"That's nice that you still get to see them," Stephanie told him. _And…this conversation got really awkward very fast, but I've got to keep talking so he doesn't have to think about his girlfriend cheating on him. I guess that what everyone says about Barbie is true. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but that can only go so far really._

"Here we are," Chris said, pushing the door open and allowing Stephanie entrance. "The music is on my ipod, but you can listen to it, I don't mind." He went over and retrieved the mp3 player and handed it to her. She took it and put the earbuds in her ears before they sat down next to each other, Chris holding the ipod and then flipping through the music. While it was playing, he couldn't hear Stephanie's thoughts and he was glad for it, glad for the quiet moment even though he was getting better and better at tuning everyone out.

After the second song, Barbie sauntered into the locker room, her clothes still looking a little askew and Chris could feel Stephanie freeze as Barbie stood by the door. "Chris, we need to talk?"

"Do you think so? I didn't think so," Chris told her with a shrug.

"You know that is serves you right that I cheated on you," Barbie sneered at him. "I'm a woman, Chris, and I have needs and if those needs aren't going to get met by you, then I'm just going to go find someone else." _He'll come crawling back to me, I'm sure, I'm probably the best fuck he's ever had. That's what all the guys tell me._

"So you go and whore yourself out to any guy that's willing to stick their dick in you? That's what that means?" he asked her.

"You're here with…with her!" Barbie pointed accusingly at Stephanie. "I bet you're fucking her behind my back. Lunch, my ass, you were probably in some cheap motel getting your rocks off inside of her!" _There, let's see him try to come back from that!_

"Whoa, wait a second," Chris said, standing up and taking a step forward. "Don't you dare talk to her like that! There's never been anything between me and Stephanie and we certainly weren't having sex in the parking lot like some people in this room."

"You've been ignoring me!"

"Because you are a horrible, horrible person," Chris said, "and it's taken me this long to see you for what you truly are, a little, immature princess who can't take care of herself and expects to fuck wherever and whenever and don't blame that on the youth, Barbie, blame it on the fact that you're obviously a slut."

"I should probably go," Stephanie whispered. _This is getting too uncomfortable. I wonder if there's a way I can just slip out or if I'm going to be too conspicuous. Why couldn't Barbie do this when nobody was here? And why would she think Chris and I were sleeping together? Not that he's that bad to look at, but…oh my God, I have got to get out of here!_

"No, stay, I'm almost through here," Chris said, so mad that he didn't even bother to register her thoughts and her uncomfortable posture.

"I am not a slut!" Barbie argued with a scoff. "You weren't saying I was a slut when you were fucking me senseless."

"Well, I got my senses back, thank you very much," Chris said, "and it made me see what you truly are. And a married man, Barbie, in a parking lot? Have you no shame? Or standards for that matter?"

"Like I said, it serves you right for what you did to me, ignoring me like that. In fact, I should go finish Jake off because he appreciates me more than _you_ ever did!" _Plus, he's better in bed…or maybe I just make all the guys better in bed because I'm clearly the best lay in the company. The Bellas have nothing on me, stupid idiots that they are._

"Oh, I should tell you now, you were probably the worst lay in my entire life," Chris added for effect. "I bet there are blow-up dolls better than you are."

Barbie's jaw dropped and her face turned red from the anger. "You…you fucking asshole!"

"No, I think that's you…or just where you like it," Chris said.

_Oh my God, ignore it, Stephanie, ignore it, ignore it, you're not here, you're part of the wall, you are part of the wall, just fade into the wall. If I crawled out of here, would they notice? Jesus Christ, too much information, too much information…_

_Worst lay? Oh, he will pay for that, I'm going to fuck every guy in this locker room and then we'll see who's a worst lay._

"I hate you!" Barbie screamed at him.

"Likewise, darling, don't let the door hit you on the way out," Chris pointed towards the door and Barbie looked aghast for a moment. _I can't believe he doesn't want me and isn't begging on his knees to be with me. What is…this…I don't have to stand for this!_ Barbie huffed one more time before turning on her heel and stomping out of the room. The room was silent for a few minutes before Stephanie quietly cleared her throat. Chris turned to her. "So how much are you just wishing the floor would open up in front of you?"

Stephanie laughed, "You just read my mind actually."

If Chris had been drinking something, he would have spit it out, "What?"

"I'm joking," Stephanie said, "just trying to ease the tension." _That was a weird reaction…but it's been such a weird day._ "Are you okay, do you want to talk about it? I'm a really good listener." _Paul makes me listen to him all the time so Lord knows I know how to listen when someone is talking._

"I'm okay," he sat down next to her, "what did you think of the songs?"

"Chris, you pretty much just ended a relationship, you have to be feeling something," Stephanie said and her thought was the exact same thing, no bullshit or anything, just thoughts and words being the exact same thing. "I don't want you to feel like you can't say something just because this friendship thing is new. I'm a woman, I have a different perspective."

"She was a fling," Chris admitted to her. "It was nothing more than that, really, just something to tide me over. The divorce…it was a difficult divorce with Jessica, messy and ugly and I guess I just needed someone for a while that I didn't have to think about."

_Well now that makes so much more sense._ "I understand," Stephanie nodded. "You just wanted a relationship that didn't have as many strings."

"Exactly and Barbie is exactly that."

_Well, I imagine she doesn't have many strings to begin with._ Chris laughed and Stephanie smiled shyly at him. "There's something about you, Chris, I don't really know what it is, but there's something about you that makes me feel like you know everything about me. Like I can just say whatever I'm thinking because even if I don't, you'll know anyways."

Chris swallowed hard, "You're really easy to talk to, I think it stems from that."

"You deserve better than that girl," Stephanie said, patting him on the knee. "You deserve someone who won't cheat on you and who you can hold a conversation with and who you want to be around. Barbie wasn't that, you said as much yourself."

"It would be hard putting myself out there."

_I know how that goes. That terrifies me._ "Sometimes you have to, don't you think? Sometimes you've just got to dive in headfirst and see what's in there, right, that's what they always say."

_I just wish I could take my own advice._


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone, hope you enjoy the chapter! :)

* * *

"Hello, hello!"

Stephanie looked up at Chris and smiled. _Finally, a friendly face_. "Hey, Chris, I wasn't expecting you to come see me tonight."

"Not see you, my new good buddy? I would never do that. I definitely like coming to see you," Chris said charmingly. He'd heard Stephanie's thought and the idea that she hadn't seen anyone friendly today bummed him out and pressed something against his chest. He wanted to be the opposite for her. He wanted her to light up every time he saw her.

He didn't know why he was so drawn to Stephanie, no, that wasn't true, he knew exactly why: her thoughts were so different from everyone else's. There was something so unselfish about her thoughts that captured his attention. It wasn't like she didn't think of herself, she did, but she thought so much about other people. The thoughts she'd had when he broke up with Barbie more than proved that. She was uncomfortable, but she kept thinking about him and how he felt. He felt like that should be rewarded, plus he was finding out Stephanie was just a genuinely wonderful person.

"You do?" she asked, tilting her head. _I don't think I've ever had anyone so happy to see me, maybe my mom, but certainly not anyone else…not even Paul…_

That made Chris frown, "Of course I do. I think you're quickly becoming the highlight of my night. It's like I can come in here and escape from all the craziness out there."

That was partly true for reasons she could never fathom. Being around everyone's thoughts could get crazy and opened him up to things he never wanted to know. He didn't need to know, for instance, that Alicia Fox had been with a man the other night who couldn't get it up or that Randy Orton liked to get Brazilian waxes and needed to schedule an appointment soon because things were getting pretty scary down there. These were things he wished he didn't know and being surrounded by this all the time got tedious.

It's why Stephanie's thoughts were such a refreshing change. "Yeah, it can get pretty crazy out there." _That's wrestlers for you._

"You're telling me," Chris chuckled as he sat down on the couch and then patted the spot next to him, giving her an enticing look. Stephanie got up and came over to sit next to him, giving him a smile and grabbing his hand to give it a warm squeeze. He liked that she did that. It was something of a trademark of hers. She liked to grab hands and give you encouragement through physical touch. She was like the opposite of Barbie. Barbie seemed to only believe the connection between two people came from having someone stick their dick inside of her, while Stephanie's touch was much more meaningful and comforting.

"Well, you chose to come into this business," Stephanie said, and there was another thing about Stephanie as well; she often spoke her mind. He found that a lot of the time, there were no thoughts to be heard because she voiced them to him. It didn't make her transparent, but it made her real. The person he saw in front of him was the person she was. The only difference were the insecurities she hid so well behind her perfected façade.

"That's true," he laughed, ducking his head down, "but I'm glad I did. You know I love it here, despite all the craziness, I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else."

"I'm glad you're here too," Stephanie told him. _It's so nice to have someone I can talk to and who I feel actually wants to hear what I say. I always get the impression everyone just talks to me because of my father. Someday, I wish I could just go to some place where nobody knows me and see what people really think of me._

"Then that makes being here even better," he told her, which caused a slight blush to creep up onto her cheeks. She ducked away, trying not to show it, but Chris grabbed her hand this time and gave it a squeeze. "Where's Paul?"

"I don't know," Stephanie shrugged. "I never really know where he is when we're at the shows. He kind of likes to do his own thing."

"Is he that way in real life?" Chris asked, wondering if Paul was as inattentive in real life as he was at the shows.

"No, he's better in real life," Stephanie assured him, but her thoughts gave her away. _If I just pretend like I'm happy, nobody will really know how miserable I am in that marriage. I think people think we're a happy couple and it should stay that way. I wouldn't want to disappoint my dad like that._

Chris felt so incredibly sad for her in that moment. Nobody should have to pretend so hard to be happy in a relationship they weren't happy in. Chris couldn't believe Stephanie would ever disappoint anyone. Granted, he didn't know her all that well yet, but from what he knew, he could see she was someone everyone should want to be around. She had that personality that just mad you want to know more of her.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Stephanie told him, giving him a look he couldn't quite decipher until he heard her thoughts. _God, am I that transparent that anyone can see how unhappy I am? I thought I was doing a good job of hiding what was really wrong with me, but I guess I wasn't._

"Are you really, _really_ sure?" Chris pressed because he knew everything Stephanie was saying was a lie. He wanted her to open up to him. He wanted to get close to Stephanie and though he didn't want to push her, he did want her to feel comfortable around him.

"Thank you for caring about me, Chris," she said instead of confessing everything in her head. "It's nice to have someone around here who I can say genuinely cares about me."

"You should have a lot people who care about you around here," he pointed out. _Why does he have to say such sweet things? It almost makes me uncomfortable when he does. I think it's probably because Paul never says nice things to me. Chris probably just says them to be nice though, but then, he really does come see me every week so…I mean, there has to be something there, friendship I guess._ "I like being your friend, Stephanie," he said, taking her thought as a verbal cue. "I really just like you."

_He really is one of the nicest people I've ever met. Was he always like this? When he was with Barbie, all I heard was about how horrible he was. But then again, maybe that was simply Barbie's fault…and now you're just being catty…but then again, the girl _did_ cheat so blatantly. _"Thank you, I really like you too," she admitted to him. "Hey, so are you okay after that whole Barbie thing from the other week?"

In actuality, Chris was more than okay. Dropping Barbie was the best thing he could have done. The air felt lighter around him and he didn't feel like he was someone's babysitter anymore. Barbie had been fun for a fling, but if he scratched the surface any deeper, all he found was a vapid, stupid, immature, little girl. "I heard she was already moving onto someone else."

"Already? Wait, is it Jake?" Stephanie wondered.

"No, because Jake is married," Chris scoffed, "I swear to God…I'm not saying I'm some kind of prude, but when I was married to Jessica, I never strayed…no matter how tempting it was."

Chris gave her a pointed look and he didn't know where that even came from. _What does he mean by that?_ Chris didn't even know what was meant by that, but when he thought of temptation, his mind went straight towards his storylines with Stephanie and how they'd had to act like they hated each other, but sometimes…when they were really close to one another…what was he thinking! He didn't have romantic feelings for Stephanie. He'd never even thought about her beyond work, not much anyways.

"I just mean that I wouldn't betray someone's trust like that, but obviously Jake doesn't care," Chris shrugged, trying to get away from that strange admission. "I think she's with Justin Gabriel or something, maybe Heath Slater, hell, maybe both."

Stephanie giggled, "Chris, that's not nice."

"I never said I was nice," he winked at her. _He can do so much better than Barbie though. If he acts like this all the time, he really could have any girl he wanted. The looks are just icing on the cake._ It made Chris feel good to know Stephanie thought he was attractive. He found her attractive too and hoped she knew that. "So what are you doing tonight?"

"Tonight? Um, Paul was going out with Sheamus, he's really taken a liking to him and so I was going to head back to the room and probably lounge."

"Come out with me," Chris prompted her, grabbing onto her hand.

"Chris…" _I'm not sure if it's the best idea to hang out with him. I mean, I might start to get the wrong idea and I really don't want to get the wrong idea because Chris is so…he's probably just being nice, remember that, Stephanie, just remember that. He probably thinks you're some lonely girl. You've got to show him you're not, you can't show that kind of weakness._

"As friends," he told her. "You shouldn't be the only one sitting alone in a hotel room. If Paul isn't going to take you, I'm going to take you and we're going to have a blast. I bet you like dancing."

"How did you know?"

"Because you told me how you liked to dance and took dance lessons," he told her, "what if I told you we could go out dancing?"

"I haven't been in a really long time, it's not exactly Paul's strong point. I don't know if you've ever seen him try to dance, but believe me, an elephant has better rhythm than he does," Stephanie joked, which made Chris laugh. _I like making him laugh_. "He used to not realize he was so bad, but then someone told him he was a really bad dancer so he hasn't danced since. He doesn't want to embarrass himself."

"He's not doing a very good job of doing that," Chris joked again and Stephanie guffawed as she covered her mouth up afterwards. "I see you agree with me."

"You shouldn't say things like that," Stephanie laughed. _He's so right though, Paul always hates to look embarrassed, but then he does some things…they just make him look even more embarrassing._

"But it's the truth," Chris told her. "So what do you say? You, me, dancing tonight? I can't say that I'm the world's best dancer, but I like to think I could hold my own if I had to. I'll light up the dance floor with my cool moves."

Stephanie laughed again, "I guess I would have to see this to believe it." _Go ahead and ask him, Stephanie, you know you want to. _"Chris, I just need to know something, why are you being so nice to me? I mean, it's not unwanted, I really like hanging out with you, but…I just don't understand what changed? We barely talked outside of our storylines, I mean, we did, but I don't think I would call you my friend. So what happened?"

"I think I saw you," Chris told her. "I don't think I saw you before, not in the right light. I guess I had a lot of misconceptions when it came to you, but I've come to see I was dead wrong about all of them. You always came off as kind of aloof and better than everyone, but then, I guess I just took notice of you more, saw more of what was lurking inside of you."

"And you liked what you saw?" Stephanie asked. _I know I shouldn't feel embarrassed, but I can't believe that was the perception he had of me, aloof? I mean, I want to project myself as strong, but I don't think anyone is buying it, are they? _

"I really did and you know, for the record," he told her, thinking about her recent thought. "I didn't mean aloof in a bad way, just that you always seemed…kind of better, I don't really know how to explain it, words are failing me, you just seemed a little closed off, but now I see I was the wrong one."

"And now I'm just…you're friend?"

"You're definitely my friend and we're going dancing, I'm not taking no for an answer here! So what do you say?"

"I say put on your dancing shoes."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything. Just letting you know that you can put your name into the name box on anonymous reviews now, in case you didn't realize, so if you leave a review, which I hope you will, you can actually identify yourself, enjoy! :)

* * *

Whenever he walked into a crowded place, there was always a few seconds where he couldn't collect himself. He winced at the cacophony of voices for a moment before he was able to collect himself and block everyone out. Still, there was always a dull white buzz in the back of his head, threatening to swarm like a hive of bees. Sometimes, little snippets would break through without his knowledge, but for the most part, he was learning to deal with this strange life turn.

"Chris, you okay?" Stephanie asked as they stood in the doorway. _I wonder if he's regretting bringing me here. I mean, God, look at all the beautiful women, and I'm here like a sore thumb. What if he wants to bring someone home, I'm not even sure Paul will come pick me up. I guess a cab would suffice…_

"Yeah, fine, just wasn't expecting it to be so loud," he said, grabbing her hand, reassuring her without words that he wanted to be there with her. "Did you want something to drink?"

"Huh?" she asked as a new song played, heavy on the bass.

"Drink, you, me, drink?" he asked jokingly, just yelling over the din of the music and the buzz everything created in his mind. She nodded and he lead her over to the bar, leaning on it, and making note of where the bartender was.

"What can I get you?" the bartender asked as she came over to get their orders.

"I'll take Grey Goose on the rocks, and she'll have," Chris turned to Stephanie to get her drink order.

"Grey Goose martini, one olive, one onion," Stephanie ordered.

"A girl who knows what they like, I dig that," Chris smirked at her as Stephanie laughed, ducking her head. "You know, you do that far too much."

Stephanie looked up at him in confusion. _What is he talking about?_ "What do you mean? What do I do far too much?"

"Duck your head like that," he told her. She bit her lip, blushing a little bit.

"I didn't know I did that so much," she said. _God, sometimes, I must look like such an idiot to him…to everyone. If only people could see how their words affect me, but it just wouldn't do if I ever showed any kind of weakness. My dad would tell me to suck it up and not let things affect me so much._

"No, I think it's cute in a way, but…you don't have to be so embarrassed by everything," he said, his heart reaching out for this girl and the sad words her mind was trying to tell her. He hated the entire world for trying to convince her she couldn't be herself, that she had to change everything she was to please others. "You are a wonderful person, Steph, you're a beautiful person, I wish you could see that."

_Does he really mean that? I don't think anyone except my mom has really ever said anything like that to me. It's so hard sometimes in this business, with all the people I work with, with all the big personalities I deal with. _"Thank you," Stephanie said, "that's one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me."

Their drinks arrived then and Chris paid for them, putting the money down before Stephanie could even say anything. She opened her mouth to protest, but he winked at her and shook his head, "I'm the one who invited you tonight, that means I pay for you."

"You don't really have to do that though," Stephanie told him. "It's really sweet of you though."

"That's my middle name," he joked.

"What? Sweet?" she asked. "That's not what I heard about you."

Chris's face fell a little bit, which Stephanie obviously noticed. _I'm such an idiot, why don't I think before I speak, I swear, one of these days, my mouth is going to get me into trouble. Now he really probably wishes he was with someone else. I can't believe I didn't think before I said something like that. _"Hey, why don't we go sit down somewhere?" Chris just said, knowing Stephanie was embarrassed, but he didn't want to talk about anything here, at the bar, surrounded by a million people.

They grabbed their drinks, and then Chris gently took Stephanie by the crook of her arm and led her away from the bar. He scanned the club and saw a small booth open in the corner. He quickly made his way over before anyone else could take it. He smoothly slid into the booth, glad for the relative quiet of this back booth. Stephanie fingered the rim of her drink as she averted her eyes. _He's probably going to tell me off right now. Let's just get this over with._

"I didn't mean what I said," she told him quickly, her voice almost too soft for him to hear.

He leaned in closer to her, finding it funny how her thoughts could be so loud in his brain while her voice was so soft. "Don't apologize, you're right." He thought back to the night before he was given this strange superpower. He was horrible to a woman who apparently cursed him. Hell, he was horrible to a lot of people.

"Chris, no, I'm not, I'm just…I don't know what I'm saying," she shook her head.

"Stephanie, seriously, you're absolutely right, I wasn't a good guy, I was horrible, to everyone," he sighed deeply, taking a deep pull of his GG. It helped calm his mind down, dull the white noise even more. "I was in a really bad place."

"I'm sorry," Stephanie said, pressing her hand against his wrist. _He looks so sad, I wish there was some way I could help him. I wish there was some way I could comfort him, but I wouldn't even know where to start._

"The divorce was really hard on me," Chris admitted. "Jessica and I…we didn't make it easy on ourselves, that's for sure. I'm just lucky there were no kids to involve, but…well, I didn't have a pre-nup, so she saw fit to try and bilk every bit of money out of me. I'm paying through the nose for her, which sucks, and…when it was over, I was just so bitter…"

"That's completely understandable," Stephanie said. _I wonder if he even really had anyone he could vent to. I don't even know if he has friends…he must, I can't imagine someone like Chris doesn't have friends._

"I kind of alienated everyone who cared about me," he said, answering her silent question, and she looked at him in surprise. "It was easier that way, you know, I hated their sympathy, I hated the feeling like I needed to lean on someone. Then, it was like, there was Barbie, and she was _so_ easy…"

"I can tell," Stephanie joked. _I'm such a bitch!_

"And at that point in my life, I needed something easy, something I didn't need to think about. She got my mind off of everything that was hurting me, but that can only last for so long. She made me a worse person. The divorce was partly to blame, but she was too, and of course my own behavior because I didn't _need_ to act like I did. It just seemed easier not to care than to let any of the hurt inside of me," Chris confessed to her, and it felt good to get out.

It was true, all of it. It was just so much easier to play the asshole than try and go for the good guy image he'd had before the divorce. He hated the looks he got from friends, so if he turned on them, made them hate him, then he could pretend he wasn't as hurt. Barbie played into that. All she cared about was fucking and he was content to concentrate on his own carnal pleasures rather than deal with the real world.

"That's no way to live though," Stephanie told him, "without friends. You need support, people need to know someone is there for them." _I wish I could have someone support me. It would make it easier, and I might actually break away._

"Yeah, I know that now," Chris said, "luckily I didn't push too many people away. And I've managed to add some new friends…I hope at least…"

_He wants to be my friend!_ "Absolutely you have," Stephanie nodded eagerly.

"And it goes both ways too," Chris told her. "I know that…well, I can just sense something in you, something that makes you really…I don't know, kind of sad, like you have this sadness about you, hanging in the air or something."

He was trying to hint without coming out and saying he knew exactly what was going on with her. If he knew everything, he might get the wrong idea about a few things. For one, he might think he was some kind of stalker who knew her intimate thought, and for another, she might think he was trying to use her or be with her. That was not the case. He just found himself drawn to her in a way he hadn't been drawn to anyone in a long time.

There was something about Stephanie that, whether it sounded cheesy or not, brought the humanity back to him. He thought he'd lost that in the divorce, along with his house and most of his cash. He'd lost faith in people after the nastiness between him and a woman he'd once loved so fiercely he'd promised to love her forever. After the divorce, trust became an issue, a huge issue, and finally, Stephanie was bringing him out of his self-imposed cocoon.

"I do not," she tried to brush it off casually, but even if Chris couldn't hear her thoughts, the words sounded flimsy and hollow. _How can he see it, I really am that transparent, aren't I? So long I've tried to make Paul and I look like the model couple, and now I see it's all just been a farce._

"I don't mean to upset you," he quickly told her, "I just want you to know that if you ever need to talk or vent or…whatever, I'm here for you, and I don't want you to feel like you're alone. Just…you know, in case."

"Thank you," she said. _ I really wish I could tell him how unhappy I am, but that would just…I shouldn't need someone so much…but isn't that what you just told him, Stephanie? Didn't you JUST tell him that he should have someone there who could support him? Then he's offering you your own support and you're not even taking it! But it's different, it's just different because you aren't supposed to need anyone. Oh come on, like that's such a huge problem._

"Hey, come on, finish that," Chris pointed to her drink, "and let's go dance."

He had to get her out of her own head. She was only doing damage to her own psyche, and he wanted it to stop. He wanted her to be having fun, not contemplating on whether she was strong or not. Stephanie gulped down the rest of her drink, enjoying the buzz that came along with it as Chris downed his in one shot. He stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her out to the dance floor. She giggled, the drink making her personality loosen up more. Chris pulled her right out into the middle of the dance floor.

She stared up at him, her eyes wide, glancing around at everyone, but they were all so engrossed in themselves, Stephanie almost felt like she and Chris were alone at sea. _This is crazy! I haven't been out like this in forever. I never have time to go out with my friends at home. I've missed this._ Chris heard her thoughts; it was like, even with the mass of bodies around them, the music thumping, everything, her thoughts were the loudest. He realized when she thought, when he focused on her, everything else completely faded.

He didn't know what to make of it, didn't know why her thoughts were so special, but maybe, just maybe he was supposed to listen to hers the most. Chris stopped mulling over it, and instead, he pulled Stephanie closer by grabbing onto her hips. She was surprised when she bumped into him and he started dancing against her, doing his best not to look like he belonged on a reject dancer pile on some reality show.

Stephanie loosened up considerably when she let the music take over. She'd taken dance classes for a while so she was a lot more graceful than Chris was, but this wasn't real dancing, it was more like gyrating and wiggling on the dance floor. Stephanie laughed as she got lost in the music, trying to help Chris dance. She would periodically grab him by the hips and try to help him sway with the rhythm of the music, even though his body refused to cooperate. Chris noticed that her mind was relatively blank, which had to mean she was having too much fun to think anything serious. He took that as a mission accomplished, and when he realized she was having a good time, he let himself have a good time. Maybe that's why he was given this gift. Maybe he wasn't supposed to hear everyone's thoughts.

Maybe he was just supposed to hear Stephanie.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything, hope you enjoy the chapter! :)

* * *

It was so much calmer when they arrived at the hotel. The cacophony the club drummed into his brain was getting tiresome, and the relative quiet of the hotel was a welcome change. He and Stephanie had went out for dessert after the club, and ice cream was the perfect way to cool down after dancing so much. He hadn't danced that much since he was on Dancing with the Stars. He wasn't out of shape, but it felt good to get out of that hot, stuffy club.

"Do you like your ice cream?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks," she told him. _This has definitely been the best time I've had in a while. I wish they night didn't have to end. I haven't felt this comfortable around someone in such a long time. It's nice to know there are people out there who still like me for me._

"No problem, you want to try mine?" Chris wondered, holding out the spoon with a little bit of mocha ice cream on it. Stephanie leaned forward and tried it.

"Oh man, that is delicious, I should have gotten that," Stephanie said, closing her eyes as she savored the taste. Chris found himself gulping over that look. She just looked so pleased. Her look distracted him so much that she could have been thinking about the cure for cancer and he wouldn't have heard a damn thought.

"Told you," he joked around with her, "but you like yours."

"Yeah, I do, you can never go wrong with chocolate chip," Stephanie said, taking an extra big spoonful of her ice cream. _I feel almost like this is a first date, that's weird, right? I mean, Chris is just getting out of a relationship and I'm married, but it just has all the ear-markings of a first date. Oh come on, Stephanie, like the guy actually would want to date you. He's just a friend…and why are you even thinking about this? You're married, so what if Paul isn't the husband you expected him to be, that doesn't mean you should go thinking about dating other men._. "What is with the look on your face?" Stephanie asked.

Chris couldn't tell her it was because he found her inner thoughts endearing. But it did almost feel like a date, whatever she was feeling about it, he was feeling the same thing. It was kind of odd actually because he kind of wished it was a date. He hadn't just had genuine fun with someone in a long time. His relationship with Jessica had deteriorated so much that they never had fun, and Barbie was merely a walking sex tape waiting to happen. But just having fun and doing sweet things with a woman? That hadn't happened in such a long time, he almost felt like a teenager again.

"Nothing, I just think you're cute with your ice cream," he told her, giving her a wide smile.

_I think I love his smile too much. He should do it more often though. The look suits him._ "Are you sure I don't have some of it on my face?" she asked, absently wiping around her chin.

"No, I'm sure," he told her, his smile even wider now after hearing how much she liked it. "Come on, let me walk you up to your room."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Stephanie told him, "I know this may come as a surprise, but I've been able to find my hotel room for years now, even if I have had a few drinks in me. Actually, I feel sober, must have sweat out all the alcohol on the dance floor."

"With the way you were moving, it doesn't surprise me."

_I probably looked like an idiot out there, but…well, Chris didn't seem to mind_. "Oh please, I probably looked stupid."

"Stupider than me?" Chris asked, trying to get that thought of her head. She'd been doing so well while they were dancing and getting ice cream. Her thoughts had been so positive and so sweet. He didn't want her thoughts to drag her down again. "I mean, the only dances I can do are ballroom dances, and considering I was voted off pretty early, I don't even think I was great at that."

"It was the Don't Stop Believin' curse, not you," Stephanie told him.

Chris was impressed, "You…"

"Know how you've been saying that?" Stephanie asked and he nodded. "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not that self-absorbed."

"I never thought that about you," he told her honestly as they reached the elevators and he pushed the up button. "If anything, I've been the most self-absorbed person around. I mean…the things I've said to people. I've been pushing everyone away."

"You're getting better now," she reassured him, pressing her hand to his arm. "You took me out tonight, and I had so much fun, you don't even realize how much." _He's so sweet, I don't want him to think so negatively of himself._

"I had so much fun too," Chris said, "I want to do this again. Soon."

"I want to as well," Stephanie nodded as they climbed on the conveyance. "It's just nice to step away from life for a while, don't you think?" _It can almost make you feel like you're a different person. Sometimes that feels so freeing, to be like a completely different person. Takes you away from all the other crap in your life._

"Absolutely," he told her, "we should do something tomorrow, do you think Paul would mind? I'm not sure if you guys are like, going home or something, but if you aren't, I would love to go out with you again, during the daylight hours even!"

"Shocking!" Stephanie laughed. "I don't think he'd have a problem with that." _I don't think he really cares about anything I do as long as it means he gets to stay in my dad's pocket. Anything that still means he gets to whisper all his ideas into my father's ear is good enough for him._

"Good." If Paul had a brain in his head, he would want to be around Stephanie, but he never claimed to know if Paul did have a brain or not. "Here we are."

"Yeah, here we are," Stephanie said as they paused in front of the door Stephanie mentioned as being her own, "can you hold my ice cream while I look for my keycard?"

"No, I don't think I'm capable of holding ice cream," Chris told her as he took the cup from her. Stephanie rolled her eyes and searched through her purse for her keycard. Chris looked over her shoulder as she rummaged through her possessions. Neither one of them noticed the door opening in front of them.

"Stephanie, what are you doing?"

"Dear God, Paul, you scared the crap out of me," Stephanie said, pressing her hand to her heart. _He needs to learn to stop doing that, God, sometimes, I swear, he's like a cat._

"I wasn't expecting you back this early," Paul told her. _ I kind of hoped you would stay out all night, give me a little peace and quiet without your constant yapping. You're worse than a puppy dog, so clingy and needy._

"Well when did you expect her back?" Chris asked, incensed by Paul's thoughts. Unfortunately, he couldn't just punch the man with no provocation. How long had Stephanie been living with a guy who couldn't care less about her whereabouts. At the very least, Paul should care where she _is_.

"Later," Paul shrugged.

"Chris and I had fun," Stephanie told him brightly.

"Yeah, that's cool," Paul said, but his tone was indifferent. Stephanie's face fell a little bit. _He could at least be happy that I'm happy. It's not like I expected him to be a jealous husband or anything, but at the very least, he could feel something_.

"Chris wanted to take me out tomorrow," Stephanie said, "I told him that I was going to."

"Great, that's great, you should go out," Paul told her. _Finally, someone to take her off my hands. I was getting sick and tired of constantly spending time with her. It'll be so much easier if I don't have to see her as much. Hell, maybe Chris can just take her off my hands all the time. Wait, no, that wouldn't be good. I don't want her falling for him or something. That would ruin everything. I've got Stephanie right where I want her. _"Actually, you know what, maybe that's not the best idea. Didn't you want to go home?"

"But that was before Chris invited me out," Stephanie said, "we can always go home tomorrow night. Chris just wanted to spend the day with me, right, Chris?"

Stephanie looked over to Chris, but his jaw was set tightly. She couldn't understand his change in demeanor, but he looked upset. No, he looked more than upset, he looked downright pissed. He hadn't even been this angry when he'd caught Barbie cheating on him. What was making him so angry right now? _Does he not want to go out with me anymore? Did I say something wrong? Maybe he's interpreting this as me choosing him over my husband? Oh no, he probably thinks I'm in love with him or something. How can I get out of this?_

"Yeah, that's right," Chris said, shooting daggers at Paul with his eyes. _He wants to spend time with me!_

"See, it's just for the day."

"Well, maybe I want to spend the day with you," Paul told her. _If she thinks that I want to spend time with her, then she won't want to hang around with Chris. I can't have him trying to take what's mine. I've already put enough time into this relationship, but I just can't have her going away. Not now, not when everything is so close. Vince is so close to retiring, and when that happens, I've got everything I wanted. I can suffer through one day with her._

"You do?" Stephanie asked. _He never wants to spend a day together. What does this mean? Is he jealous of Chris or something? Is he really jealous over _me_? I didn't know he would ever be jealous over me._

"Yeah, of course I do. You're my wife, and I've just realized we haven't spent nearly enough time with one another. I guess we've been letting the real world get in the way too much, stupid work and what not. I want to take you out."

"That's sweet," Stephanie said, "but Chris asked me first. We can go out when we get home. That's alright, isn't it?"

_Son of a bitch!_ "Um, yeah, sure," he faltered just slightly and Chris scoffed under his breath. He just needed one word, just one spoken word and it would be lights out for Paul. He was already on edge after his earlier thoughts, but the more Paul thought, the more murderous Chris's own thoughts became. Stephanie didn't deserve this. Stephanie deserved better than this. He was sure now, he was so sure that she was the one he had to listen to. The curse had been listening to others, to think of others before himself, and Stephanie was it. Stephanie was the one he was supposed to help.

"We're going to have a great time," Chris said through gritted teeth, "I promise you that, Stephanie. Hey, since Paul thought you were going to stay out later than you were, why don't you come up to my room and we'll watch a movie or something, Paul, you wouldn't mind, you did say you expected her later."

_What is his game here? Does he really think he's going to take her from me? Fuck that, it's not going to happen, I'm not going to let that fucking happen._ "Well, yeah, I did say that—"

"Great, let's go, Stephanie," Chris grabbed her hand. "I'll have her back later, whenever later may be, if you figure out what you meant, let us know!"

Chris pulled Stephanie down the hallway back towards the elevators. _What is he doing! He's crazy, he's absolutely crazy!_ "Chris, what are we doing?"

"We're having fun, what does it look like we're doing?" he told her with a laugh. Her face was the brightest he'd ever seen it. She looked just happy, just plain happy without pretense or anything hidden underneath. She was just happy.

If the universe was telling him to listen to Stephanie, he was going to listen.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, reads, and everything, hope you enjoy the chapter, and Happy New Year to everyone who reads this, reviews are awesome, so hopefully you'll leave one! :)

* * *

"I feel spoiled."

Chris laughed, "Spoiled? That's not a word I'd associate with what I'm doing."

Stephanie blushed, _God, why is it I can never think of the right words when I'm around him. It's like the link between my brain and my voice is weird or something_, "I just meant, well, I just…"

"Hey, it's okay, you don't have to feel embarrassed," he told her, reaching out and grabbing her hand, holding it in his lightly, his thumb rubbing over her knuckles, "what have I told you?"

_A lot of things because he actually talks to me, _"That I can tell you anything?" she questioned even though she knew that was the answer because they'd been through this spiel before. He nodded, and she nodded silently back in understanding. It was just difficult for her to find that balance between talking with him an annoying him. It didn't help that she always felt like she was annoying him. "It's nothing."

"It's obviously not nothing," Chris told her, "why do you feel spoiled?"

_Because you've been more amazing to me than anyone has been in a long time, save for my mother, probably, and even that hasn't been great all the time. She was not enthused when I married Paul, I guess she was right when she didn't think he was right for me._ "I just do," she shrugged, but Chris could hear her thoughts and it made him sad for her.

He was so blind for so long about her life, and he felt badly for it because he'd been there, he'd been _right _there, but he never noticed, never took any time to actually look at Stephanie and try to see what was there. He hated himself for that now. Had she been like this for so long, wandering through her life without anyone ever seeing what she was really like? Had she been so ignored that she kept all her thoughts to her own head?

He wanted her to open up to him because he could hear how dire her thoughts were, and it actually pained him to think she couldn't voice what she really wanted to say. Was this how most of the world operated? He didn't know nor did he really care to know. All he wanted to know was what went through Stephanie's head. When he peeked inside her mind (which he felt bad about, but not bad enough not to take a gander), she drowned out the entire world. He wasn't entirely sure if this was by design or coincidence.

He was so sure now that she had something to do with lifting this curse, but he couldn't be totally sure what it was. The woman had told him that it wouldn't lift until he thought of others. Maybe it wasn't all others, maybe it was just Stephanie. There had to be a reason her voice stood louder than any other voice he heard, why her mind was the only one his mind so desperately wanted to focus on. He just needed to figure out what it all meant. He didn't want to pry into her brain forever.

"You have to have a reason," he prodded, trying to get her to open up to him. He knew what she was thinking, but he wanted her to say it, to take charge of her own thoughts and voice them to him. "Stephanie, I would never judge anything you have to say, and if you don't think I've been observant of you…I have."

She looked up at him sharply then, _I knew I was too obvious. I knew he would be able to see through me_. "Nobody…" She started, but paused, her breath catching her throat, and Chris thought he saw the beginning of tears in her eyes, but he couldn't be sure, and he didn't want to jump to conclusions. If they were tears though, he was just about ready to hop over the table and cradle her in his arms, however inappropriate that might be.

"You can do it," he encouraged her. She gave him a slight laugh, and he warmed at it. He loved when he could do that for her, when she broke out of that shell just a little bit. There was someone underneath this Stephanie, someone he very much wanted to meet. He'd seen her last week when he'd taken her out dancing, and he wanted more of her.

"Nobody has ever treated me so sweetly," she finally admitted, her cheeks reddening as she stared down at her water glass. "That's horrible of me to say, isn't it? I mean, here I am, a married woman, and I'm practically saying my husband doesn't treat me well."

"Well does he?" Chris had to ask though he knew already because Stephanie could hide nothing from him when he could read her thoughts like this.

_No. No, he doesn't. He's there, but he's not really _there_. I loved him so much once, and I swear I thought he loved me too, but I'm even calling that into doubt, and I hate that. I hate that I have to resort to that._ "Of course," she insisted, "I mean, I married him, right?"

"That doesn't mean he treats you well. I'm not saying he's like abusive or anything, but um," he didn't know how far he could go without her snapping at him. He didn't want to lose her friendship, not because he thought she was the answer to breaking his curse, but because he genuinely cared about her now. "I don't know, he just doesn't seem…attentive," he opted for the least offensive word he could think of in that moment.

"It's obvious, huh?" Stephanie sighed, looking down and this time, her thoughts were her words. "He's just not…great at showing stuff like that. I don't think he's a very emotional guy except for hunger and desire, which usually doesn't extend to me but to the business."

"So you think he's using you?"

_I know he's using me_. "I mean, there's a part of it where I guess…sometimes, maybe he gets a little overzealous, but he just loves this business so much that it gets to him sometimes. He wants to be a success, someone that everyone will remember."

"Yeah, I got that vibe," Chris said. "Come on, let's go for a walk, we're just sitting here drinking our coffee anyways, and I think our waitress is giving us the evil eyes, willing us to leave already so she can collect her tip."

"We're paying customers, we can stay however long we want," Stephanie told him, and there she was, there was the Stephanie he'd seen at the club. This was the Stephanie he wanted to be around. He wanted this Stephanie to stay.

"I know, but I really want to go for a walk. It's a beautiful day, and it's exercise so how can you go wrong, right? Besides, we can't sit here all day, we'll drink our weight in coffee and never go to sleep again."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, something he found she did when she found something funny but not funny enough to laugh about it. She found him endearing, and he would take it. He liked that he was endearing himself to her. "Okay, fine, luckily I wore my sneakers and not a pair of heels or something."

"You don't have anyone to impress here, wear your sneakers all the time," he told her. _What if I want to impress you? Oh stop it, Stephanie, you're a married woman, remember, and just because a guy is showing you a little bit of attention doesn't mean he wants to get with you, especially someone as wonderful as Chris._

_I wonder why he's single. I mean, I get why he's single since Barbie, but I really wonder why he hasn't found someone worthy of his time. Like, I just wonder why he hasn't found that special person when it seems like he can read people so well. You don't even know what you're saying, Stephanie, for all you know, he has his eye on someone._

Chris ducked his head a little bit as they stood. He didn't want to pry, he was trying so hard not to pry, but it was difficult. He found himself thinking about what she said as they walked out of the coffee shop and onto the street. The silence was comfortable so they both got lost in it. Chris didn't listen in on her thoughts because he was zoned in on his own, which just happened to be fixating on what she said.

He was obviously single because Barbie had been a cheating, lying bitch, but he hardly cared about her, and as far as he was concerned, she was merely a wisp of air in his past, something that breezed by his consciousness, but wasn't noteworthy. That special person was starting to feel like…well, it was starting to feel like…

It was starting to feel like the woman standing next to him.

At first, he just wanted to befriend her, but his feelings for her were getting as muddled as hers for him. He'd been trying to deny it since they'd started hanging out, but if she was thinking it too, was it so bad to let it dwell on his brain for a few moments as well? Stephanie was turning out to be nothing like he expected, but kind of like everything he wanted. She was so many things all at once, so many things you think will collide and be messy together, but she pulled everything off so flawlessly.

How could her idiot husband not see these things? How could he take advantage of her and not see her for the woman she was? He was getting angry so he got out of his own mind, stayed out of Stephanie's, and acted on instinct, grabbing her hand in his as they continued walking down the street. He could feel Stephanie's eyes on their joined hands, and he wanted to go inside her head for a moment, but he resisted. He just wanted to _feel_, he didn't want to analyze her thoughts, he didn't want to pour over her words. He wanted to just feel what he was feeling and let her feel what she was feeling, and that was the end of it.

He'd gotten so good at blocking out thoughts that he just didn't listen in. It was harder than it looked, but he'd been cursed for a while now so he'd had no choice but to train himself to rein it in. Stephanie, to her credit, didn't pull away, instead letting her hand relax in his. He smiled, looking at the scenery as Stephanie pulled closer to him until their arms were touching and their shoulders were practically touching as well.

"I love when the weather is warm, but there's kind of a breeze," she said idly, probably to just break up the silence.

"I like it too," he smiled over at her, hoping that she got his double meaning. A peek wouldn't hurt.

_What does this mean!_

Chris smirked at her, loving the way her brain seemed to be going a mile a minute. He liked that he got that response from her. When he'd been with Barbie, she'd been so…just there. Barbie was just a girl, a young one, and she didn't know what she wanted from life. Hindsight gave him a lot of insight into the type of person Barbie was. She was vapid and mean, but she was barely out of her teens, and she would need to grow into adulthood.

Stephanie was an adult, and she carried herself like one, but he reduced her to this, and he liked it, not because it stroked his ego, but because he liked Stephanie, and he wanted to elicit that response out of her. "I like the water," Stephanie said as they walked towards the harbor of the city they were in. The salty air from the ocean was faint still, but lingering there and she took a deep breath that he found adorable.

"Do you go out on the ocean often?"

"Sometimes, on my family's yacht," Stephanie said, "oh God, did that sound snobby of me or what?"

"Of course not, I knew your dad had a boat, doesn't it have some name, what is it?"

"Sexy Bitch," Stephanie told him embarrassedly as Chris laughed. "Only my dad would have a boat named that, right?" _Thanks, Dad, for embarrassing me when you aren't even here!_

"Yes, that has your dad's name written all over it," Chris's laugh died down. "But still, I mean, you like riding the Sexy Bitch, right?"

Stephanie's face turned so red he would have suggested sunscreen for her, "Chris…"

"I'm sorry, I had to do it," he told her, squeezing her hand, "but I'd love to take you out on the water sometime, you know, get your sea legs and everything. Maybe when we're near a lake or something, I love jet-skiing and I'm pretty good at water skiing, you ever been?"

"No," Stephanie shook her head.

"I'm taking you then, it's a done deal," Chris said, "we can start with jet-skiing, you'll love it, if you love the water, you'll love this."

"Okay," Stephanie smiled shyly. _He wants to take me places. _

He wanted to take her everywhere actually. They continued walking, the comfortable silence settling over them again, and they were content to take in the city. Chris hadn't even asked her where Paul was this morning, and she had not given up the information. He was glad for it because he didn't want Paul ruining their moment. Paul ruined too much of Stephanie as it was, he wasn't going to let him ruin any more of her.

He was broken from his thoughts as Stephanie was pitched forward, tripping over something. Chris reached out and caught her just as her knees were about to hit the ground. He straightened her and she looked up at him gratefully. Her eyes took up his whole vision as she stood close to him, their noses practically touching, their breaths shared in the enclosed space between their mouths.

"Thanks," she breathed softly, "I tripped on the crack in the sidewalk."

"I should call the city and tell them they have a hazard on their hands," he told her.

She swallowed as her eyes darted to his lips. _I want to kiss him._ Chris took no further instructions as he started to lean in, tilting his head a little bit to make easy the path from his mouth to hers. She held stock still as Chris leaned in closer and closer, his lips almost brushing against hers. Suddenly, she jerked away and shook her head.

"Chris, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't do this, I'm married," she told him, shaking her head violently. "I can't cheat, I can't do it."

"Of course, of course, I'm so sorry," Chris said, liking her all the more for having such a strong conviction. "I didn't mean, I'm sorry, it was just the moment, and you were…I'm sorry."

"It's okay, let's just forget it," Stephanie said, but the moment was fractured now, and they both just stood there before turning around and walking back in the direction they came, their walk ruined. But then her thought broke through the haze of his embarrassment. Just one thought that pierced his skull before settling softly on his heart.

_I think I'm falling in love with Chris._


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Thanks for all the reads, reviews, and what not, enjoy the chapter! :)

* * *

He'd never had someone essentially tell him he was loved while never saying a word.

That one sentence flipped his entire world into another direction, and this was _after_ it was already flipped once with the entire reading minds curse thing that still wasn't cleared up. Now he had Stephanie falling in love with him, and he wasn't sure what to do with that information. It wasn't everyday that someone confessed their love without confessing their love. He wanted to talk about it, but how could he without revealing what was really going on.

Then there was the way he actually felt about it, which was just a muddle most of the time. If he let himself think about it, there was a good possibility that he'd over-think it…or he would come to some very scary thoughts. Things were better left alone right now, deciphering what he was feeling could come later. But that would be admitting that there were feelings on his side, and he wasn't quite ready to admit that.

Even if there were.

He'd long figured out that the key to breaking this curse was Stephanie. There had to be a reason why Stephanie's voice was the loudest, why her voice was always the one piercing through, even if there were hundreds or thousands of other voices around. Stephanie's voice kept his focused. Stephanie kept his focused, and he had yet to find another person he'd even seen or passed by or made eye contact with that did that for him. So Stephanie had to play some kind of part in all this.

That's why he _should_ decipher his feelings.

"You're distracted," she told him. _He's probably bored of me, I'd be bored of me too, look at you, Stephanie, not even saying anything, sitting here, making him bored._

"Just a little."

"I shouldn't have asked you out," Stephanie told him, shaking her head, making her ponytail fly behind her. _What was I thinking? Oh yeah, you didn't want to be alone tonight because Paul went out again without you. He didn't even invite me, but when does he ever invite me?_

"Why not?"

"Your mind is elsewhere," she told him astutely. Sometimes he wondered if she could read his mind, at the very least, she could read his moods pretty well. He liked that about her, and uh oh, he was starting to decipher those feelings, and that could only lead him to disaster. _He probably wants to be anywhere by here._

"A little, just thinking about my schedule, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been ignoring you," he told her, reaching across the table and grabbing her hand. He tried to tune out her thoughts because he knew them already. He knew she was going to wonder about why he took her hand, she was going to start feeling for him, and she was going to feel horrible for it.

"Are you sure?" she asked wearily, eyeing him like he might bolt any second. _I can't believe I'm about to do this_. "Chris, can we talk about what happened between us a couple weeks ago?"

He was actually surprised she was going to bring it up. Neither one had brought up their near kiss since it happened. For the both of them it was by design. He heard her thoughts sometimes regarding it, but he quickly tuned her out as best he could because he didn't want to hear it. It wasn't so much that he wanted to give her privacy (that was a little bit of the reason), but more so because it would only confuse him more, and he was already so confused. His mind felt chaotic when he thought about that, what he'd almost done, what he really, actually, sort of, kind of, maybe wanted to do.

"Um, what about it?" he asked slowly, swallowing hard as he tried to get the sudden lump in his throat out. She was trying to bring up those feelings he didn't want to bring up, he was trying not to think of her words, but they were starting to shine in her eyes, just a small glow, but it would burn brighter and brighter if he didn't extinguish it. The only thing was he didn't know if he wanted to put that glow out.

"I mean, I just…I kind…I wanted it," she finally confessed. _He's going to think you're the stupidest person on the planet, Stephanie. He's going to think you're dumb, and he's going to think you're just…oh my God, did I really just say I wanted him to kiss me, what is going through your mind, woman! You're married, you can't just admit that to him, and what's he going to think about you. He's going to think you're some kind of whore because you're married, you idiot._

"You did?" he cut through the cacophony in her brain. He didn't want her to feel bad, he didn't want her to get inside her own head so much. She was berating herself like she'd commit murder and not like she just wanted a simple kiss.

"Yeah, I guess, I kind of did," she told him. He knew it, he knew she did because that's why _he_ almost did, but he couldn't tell her about that. He couldn't tell her about how he could read her mind right this second. Or about how the panic in her eyes didn't even belay half the panic that was in her brain at the current moment. "I know that makes me a horrible person—"

"Why?" he wondered. "Why does that make you a horrible person?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said sarcastically, "probably because I'm married, and I'm supposed to love my husband, and I'm supposed to want to kiss him, not you, not my friend."

_Not the man that makes me feel good about myself._

"Are you happy with him, Steph?" Chris felt compelled to ask her, hoping she would come clean with him. He knew the truth, knew that Paul wasn't nearly good enough for Stephanie. It wasn't that Paul was a bad man, he didn't abuse her, he didn't berate her, but he just wasn't there. He just wasn't there for her and didn't seem to act like he cared what happened to her. It wasn't even like he was using her, but just indifferent to her altogether.

"Chris, please don't ask me that," she pleaded with him, and that was really all the answer he needed, but he wanted her to say it. He wanted her to own up to everything that was going on inside her head. There was only one way to do that though; he had to prod her, had to get her to confess to what she was feeling. He could hear it all, but he wanted her voice not her thoughts.

"Stephanie, are you happy with him? Do you want to stay married to him forever? When you see yourself having kids, is he the man you see it happening with? When you picture the twilight years, sitting on a porch, watching the sunset, is it him you see it with?"

"Chris, please, don't," Stephanie again pleaded with him. _Please stop asking me that, please don't make me face that my husband and I are doomed to fail. I don't want to be a failure. I already feel like one so much of the time, please don't make me admit to this one too._

"Stephanie, are you happy, you can tell me, I won't judge you, I won't tell anyone, I just…I can't tell, well, there are certain things I can tell, and one of them is, well, you know, I think I can tell when you're not happy."

"What do you want me to say, Chris?" Stephanie asked him. _Do you really want me to confess every insecurity, every time I felt down about myself? I don't think there's enough time in the world for that._

"Everything," he told her, using her words against her.

"No, I'm not happy with him," she finally confessed, and she gave a short laugh like it was a relief. He didn't want in her head in this moment. He just wanted her words, he wanted to see how much of herself she would actually reveal to him. He knew so much, but he didn't know what she would say, that was her own, something just hers.

"Okay, that's a start."

"He's my husband, and I should love him, but I don't think he loves me, not the right way. I just think he's there, like he's just…there, like he's lost interest in me," she told him, "and I can't really figure out why, I don't feel like I've changed, I don't feel like I'm doing anything differently but then it's just like, he doesn't want me anymore."

"He should, you're amazing."

"Chris…"

"No, Stephanie, I'm telling you, you're amazing," he told her, "and I wanted to kiss you, that's why I leaned in, that's why I was going to kiss you. I just wanted to do it."

And that was the truth.

Through the jumble of thoughts, his brain kept settling on that one. Yes, she wanted a kiss, but he wanted to give her one too. He wanted to press his lips against hers, and take away everything she was going through. He wanted to take her pain and claim it for his own. She didn't deserve all the weight she was carrying.

"_You_ wanted to kiss me?" she asked incredulously, like someone would need a reason to kiss her. How could her self-esteem be so low that she didn't see how enchanting she really was? Maybe it was because of the vapidity that came with Barbie, but Stephanie was the complete opposite, everything about her was endearing while everything about Barbie was repulsive.

"Yeah, I did," he confessed, and she actually looked completely surprised. He had to take a look. _Oh my God, he wanted to kiss me. What does that mean? Does he like me? No, he probably felt sorry for me, that has to be it. Do you think he likes you? I mean, come on, Stephanie, he's pretty much proved he can have any girl in the entire fucking world, why would he want you of all people?_

He really wanted to know why anyone _wouldn't_ want her, but he couldn't ask that. "You really, really did?" she asked instead and he nodded again. "What does that mean, Chris? I mean, what do you think—I don't even know what I'm saying anymore."

"It means that I've found you to be a pretty awesome person, Stephanie," Chris told her, squeezing her hand, "and all of that has led me to really, really like you. Now, I don't know what that means, I don't know what to do from here on out, but I like you a lot, and Paul doesn't appreciate you."

"He tries his best," Stephanie still tried to defend him, but her arguments were getting flimsier by the second. She couldn't turn on Paul's affections for her like a faucet and lately, the faucet had been reduced to an annoying drip.

"No, he really doesn't, or you wouldn't feel like you do," Chris argued. "I'm not saying he's not a good guy, hell, maybe he is, but maybe, just maybe, he's the good guy for someone else that isn't you. He doesn't seem to care from what I've seen."

"I know," she hung her head down. _Everyone can see it. Everyone can see that what we have is terrible._

"Stephanie, I don't think…" He didn't know how to finish this without her knowing he could read her brain. He tried to think of the words to say to her, to make her feel better, but there weren't any because she chose this life, and now it was crumbling around her. But maybe, just maybe he could be the one to pick up the pieces when the time came. "You deserve better, _more_."

"I don't know."

"I do know," he told her, and he did because he could see inside her mind. He could see the effects that her life was having on her, and someone as special as Stephanie should not think so lowly of herself. "I like you, Stephanie, a lot, more than I should at this point in time, and I'm not going to rush you to do anything, but I'm an option, alright? I'm putting myself out there as an option."

"You…are?" _Does that mean what I think it means, he wants to _be_ with me? But…how, he's so—_

"Yeah, I am."


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything. I kind of feel this one winding down, so we'll see where this takes us, hope you enjoy! :)

* * *

_She has got to be the dullest person alive._

Chris glared at Hunter, sucking at his teeth a little to refrain from saying something. He wasn't even close to him, but it was like Chris was zoning in on just his voice. He was a couple tables over, trying to eat, and staring at Stephanie and Hunter who were trying to do the same thing at their table. Stephanie was talking about something, Chris couldn't hear _that_, but whatever it was, Hunter didn't appreciate it.

_My God, will she ever just be quiet. She can't just be quiet sometimes. Yes, Stephanie, we get it, you want to go with one storyline, you don't have to go on about it for _days_. Please, can't we just eat in peace on time?_

Hunter said something to her, and Stephanie gave a short smile, an uncomfortable one before she stopped talking and focused on her food. Chris could just guess what Hunter said to her to make her be quiet and eat her food. Chris was really starting to see just how wrong Hunter was for her. He wasn't abusive, Chris hoped, but he was just so inattentive and distant with her. He put himself out there, but that was it, he couldn't, wouldn't do more. It had to be Stephanie's choice to leave.

He wasn't a cheater. He didn't want to be that guy, and he wasn't going to make Stephanie that kind of woman. But he still wanted her. It was this growing feeling inside him. Every moment he spent with her, he wanted her a little more, and pretty soon, he could feel it was going to consume him, and he didn't know what was going to happen then. When that happened, maybe his restraint would really be tested.

_I knew he didn't want to hear about it. I thought maybe this once he might want to hear about the ideas I had, I mean, some of them even concern him, not that he would ever let me do those since he says he gets to control everything about his character. Stephanie, why are you even trying anymore? There's someone that _does_ want you._

Chris quickly left her thoughts, not wanting to hear more. Nowadays, it felt like such an invasion of her privacy to peek inside her brain. If he was going to have Stephanie, he wanted her by normal means. He wanted to talk to her, and he wanted to hear her actual words, not her brain. He didn't know why it was that way, why she was the exception. The mind-reading thing could be kind of fun now that he controlled it, but it was never fun looking into Stephanie's brain.

_Dude, I deserve a push more than any of these guys._

Chris rolled his eyes as Zack walked by. That guy really didn't think of much else except for his push.

_Should I dye my hair redder?_

And there was Alicia, and he should tell her that her hair looked fine as it was, any redder and she'd look like a fire hydrant.

_You know, that AJ chick is actually pretty cute, I wonder if she has a boyfriend. Dude, you know you're with Nikki, right? Yeah, so what, she wants to break up with you anyways, you can sense it, and why not? She's actually kind of cool, but nerdy._

Chris scoffed at Dolph's thoughts, leave it to him to think of his next girlfriend while with his current girlfriend, not that he had room to talk. His own mind wandered back to Stephanie, and he saw that she was looking at him. The urge to peek into her mind rose, but he ignored it. He didn't want in her mind. She stared at him a moment after they locked eyes, and he smiled at her. She smiled shyly back at him, all of this going unnoticed by Hunter, who was still focusing on his food.

He tilted towards the door and she gave a slight nod. He quickly cleaned up his plate and headed towards the door. When he was out of the room, he leaned against the wall. A few minutes later, she appeared, grinning at him, and he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway, letting go after a few steps so he could wrap his arm around her companionably. He felt her arm slip around his waist, resting against his side casually.

"How was your weekend?" he asked.

"Boring," she told him, "just hung around the house. I wanted to go out to the movies, but Hunter said he wasn't in the mood and I didn't want to go by myself."

"That sucks, he could have slept through it, but I bet he snores, and with that nose, I'm sure it would disrupt the entire movie," he joked, and Stephanie laughed and pressed her forehead against his bicep.

_What the hell is going on with those two?_

Chris looked around and saw Randy Orton looking at them. He cleared his throat and speared Randy with a look. The other man quickly looked away, trying not to draw attention to himself. Chris licked his lips a little and wondered if anyone else thought they were getting too close. Either way, he didn't care. Stephanie was his friend, maybe something more, and he didn't want to let go of that.

"How about I come to Connecticut this weekend, and we'll do something," Chris told her. "I don't have any plans, and since Hunter didn't want to do anything with you, I can fill in."

"You don't have to do that, I feel like I've been monopolizing your time," she told him. "I really don't want to do that."

_I don't want him to find out how boring I actually am._

That one snuck in without him even noticing it, and he frowned over it. How could she possibly think, after everything they'd talked about, that he would find her boring? She was anything but boring. She was fun and fascinating. She was interesting. She was a mystery that he wanted to solve, and he loved spending time with her. He wished her self-esteem was better, and if she would just leave Hunter, he could show her just how worthwhile she really was.

"Are you kidding me? I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to be with you," Chris told her. "I want to spend time with you. You know this, I thought I made it clear, you know…Stephanie, look, um, hey, let's go outside, is that okay? Are you busy?"

"No, I'm not busy right now," she told him and so he turned them around and started walking towards the entrances. There were some empty loading docks, and he lead her over to one, sitting down with his feet dangling off the edge. Stephanie joined him a moment later, and they sat there in silence for a few seconds before Chris turned to her.

"I like you. I wasn't lying when I said it, and I'm not lying now. I like you a lot, more than I should considering you're married, but…but it's like this. I don't think you and Hunter are right together, we both know you are, Steph. And I'm not like demanding you leave him or anything, but you deserve someone who will put you first. I mean, like, earlier, what were you talking about? I saw you talking, and he looked uninterested."

Stephanie was trying to process what Chris was telling her, so she answered in a fog, "Storyline ideas."

"And did he even care?"

"No, not really."

"You shouldn't have to put up with that," Chris said, and he was flying by the seat of his pants right now. He wasn't even sure what he was doing, but it felt right. Telling Stephanie, in no uncertain terms, what he felt, what he really, truly felt just seemed like the right thing to do. He couldn't stand to see her with Hunter for one more day. He wanted to be with her. He wanted the chance.

"Chris, we've been over this," Stephanie said, "I told you—"

"I want to be with you," Chris told her. "I want to try with you. Stephanie, he couldn't even be bothered to listen to you, and how often does that happen? All the time, right? He does that all the time. Leave him."

"Leave him for you?" Stephanie was in shock now, he could tell. Her face was open and confused, and he so wanted to get in her brain, but that would be cheating. He couldn't cheat with her. She was the exception.

"Yes, I guess that is what I'm saying, yes," Chris told her, and now he just didn't know what he was doing, but hell, he was going with it, and everything else be damned. "I want to be with you, and I will treat you better, and I will be better for you. I want to hear your ideas, I want to know the details of your day."

"Chris…um, are you in love with me?"

_Oh my God, could he actually be in love with me?_

Another one snuck through, and it was like, even with his defenses completely up, she still got through to him. He wasn't even sure if he was in love with her, he'd never truly explored his feelings, but being with her, being around her, it just felt right. It felt right in a way that nothing had ever felt right before. Even with Jessica, even at the best of times, it had never felt so right before.

"I don't know, but I want to find out," he told her. "Stephanie, I'm laying it all out there right now, I'm asking you to give us a shot. I'm not going to do this with you if you stay married to Hunter, I won't cheat, I don't want to be that guy, but I want the chance. And really, what do you have with Hunter that's worth saving?"

"This is a big decision," Stephanie said, "I really don't know what to think or say, I'm just…I don't know, I mean…"

"I'm not asking you to decide right now, but I couldn't wait any longer. I know it seems abrupt, but it's been building, I've been watching and listening, not eavesdropping," he added quickly, even though you could consider what he was doing very much eavesdropping. "I've seen it, how you two are together, and I could be better for you, I know I could."

"I just…I need to think about this, I'm married, so this isn't going to be something I can just…you know, do without thinking of the consequences," she told him, and now more than ever, he wanted to know, but he couldn't look. He just could not look because it felt like spoilers. He didn't want to hear her thought process, didn't need to know her pro/con list. He just needed to hear her say the words.

"I get it," he grabbed her hands and held them in his own. "I'm just making a heartfelt plea to you here. I think I could be the guy for you. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but I don't think I'm making one right now."

_I can't believe he actually wants me! He wants to be with me!_

He closed his eyes, trying to block her out, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.

_Nobody has ever been this passionate about me before. Nobody has ever declared themselves to me, is that what he's doing? Is he…I don't even know, I just know that he wants me, and…and Stephanie, can you actually do this? I mean, you know Hunter is not the one, you've figured that out long ago, but what if it didn't work with Chris? What if I try with him, and it doesn't work then I'm alone, and I really don't want to be alone…but isn't that pretty much what you are now? Hunter doesn't ever want to go out with you, he never wants to do anything with you. He's bored, you're unhappy, wouldn't it be better just to end it._

"Stop," Chris said involuntarily, and Stephanie looked at him in confusion.

"Chris, what's wrong?" she asked, pressing her hand to his arm.

"Nothing," he said, "I just know that brain of yours is going a mile a minute, that's all. Stephanie, give it a couple days, alright, just a couple days, iron out your mind. I don't want you to feel like you have to say yes, it's all about you being comfortable, and you being happy. That's all I want, I just want you to be happy."

"I'll think about it," she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I'm going to go, work and all that, but…I'll keep in touch."

"Yeah, please do," he said, watching her go. He waited a few moments before he got up and walked inside. Something was different though, something felt…everything felt muted. He could still hear thoughts around him, but they were somehow duller. Stephanie was the key, being with her was the key.

Now he just had to wait.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Thanks for reviewing and reading and everything, enjoy the chapter, review if you like! :)

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Waiting sucked.

Oh, he'd known that way before waiting for Stephanie to decide what she wanted to do with her life, but this felt like torture somehow. It was odd to put himself so out there, and he'd never done that before. He'd never declared himself to any woman, so to do so now, when things were so in the balance regarding this weird power he was given, it was intense to say the least. It felt like everything was hanging in the balance, actually, it was all hanging on a word from her.

True to his word, he gave her space to think about what she wanted. He didn't call her, he didn't text her, he didn't show up on her doorstep. He was giving her the time to think because he knew she needed it. Stephanie, from what he could read of her mind, wasn't the kind to make any rash decisions. She pored over them, studied them from every angle, and probably thought of every possible scenario, good and bad, before deciding. So to interfere now might set her back some in the thinking process.

He almost wanted to call her brother just to see if she was okay. It robably wouldn't do any good though. He knew they were close, but he wasn't sure Stephanie would go to him about this. He wasn't sure she would go to anyone about this actually. She probably didn't want everyone to know her business, plus, this business involved her leaving her husband, and he wasn't sure how her family would take that.

Her father seemed to love Paul to distraction, so her leaving him might not sit well with him, but it wasn't like Chris was a slouch. Chris knew this business just as well, maybe even better than Paul, not that it was about the business, but he knew Vince, and the business end of things was sure to creep into his mind. Linda, well, her and Shane, he could see just wanting Stephanie to be happy. He was going to bank on that.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to see how she was though, even if it wasn't from her. He grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts to Shane's number. He stared at it then put his phone down. He couldn't bother Shane, that would be weird, and what would he say? Did Shane even know they were friends? No, he was sure that Shane knew, but still, wouldn't it seem strange? He picked up the phone again, but then put it back down again.

What if he called Linda? No, that would be worse than Shane. At least with Shane he could shoot the breeze a little bit. Yes, Shane was the lesser of two evils. He grabbed the phone again, this time, he pressed the call button and waited for Shane to answer. "Irvine? What the hell are you calling me for?"

Same old Shane, "I have to have a reason to call you?"

"Since I'm not your boss anymore, yeah, you should have a reason for calling me. You don't need to suck up to me anymore, I can't help you."

"Damn, I thought that would work."

"How are you doing though, man, I heard about the divorce, that had to be rough, although I also heard that you were doing Barbie, which…I don't even know what to say to that. She's not my type, but I heard she's a lot of other people's types."

"I broke it off with her a while ago now. There's only so long you can put up with her. She was cute for a while, but way too vapid for anything long-term, she only had a few things on her mind, and none of them were anything I was interested in. The divorce was rough, but I feel like I'm getting out of that post-marriage funk."

_Thank God he's not with Barbie anymore, she's so gross. _

God, did everyone just secretly hate Barbie? "That's good, man, I'm glad to hear it, but honestly, I don't think you called me to talk about our personal lives, so what's up? You leaving again and need a desk job?"

"The day I take a desk job is the day you can shoot me, man," Chris laughed. "I actually just wanted to ask about Stephanie."

"Stephanie? My sister, Stephanie? That Stephanie?" _What does he want with Stephanie? Has Chris ever asked about Stephanie before? Are they friends? Huh? But I've never…wait, didn't Stephanie tell you they were hanging out, like they were friends or something? I think she mentioned that during dinner, not that you could hear her because Paul had to step in and talk everyone's ears off._

Well, this was a good sign that Shane wouldn't hate it if Stephanie chose him. Now he kind of wanted to go see Linda and read her thoughts, see if she thought the same thing, and it couldn't hurt just to peek into Vince's brain. What if Vince was just pretending to like Paul? Stranger things had happened, like him having the ability to read minds. And if that was possible then Vince pretending to like someone was very, very possible.

"Yes, that's the Stephanie we both know, I'm not calling about some random Stephanie."

"Why are you calling me and not her?"

"Well, it's just like…we had this talk the other day, and it was kind of intense—"

"So you had a fight?"

"It wasn't a fight, believe me, it wasn't a fight, it was just a very intense discussion, and I just was wondering if you'd seen her recently, and if you had, if she was okay, if she looked happy or not or—"

"So you're in love with my sister?" Shane said. _I should have known. I should have known these two would end up right here. _

Should have known? Was this…what? Chris was confused. Did Shane see something in them that he just didn't see? Yes, he'd contemplated whether or not he was blind when he and Stephanie had their storylines together, but was it obvious to other people? Did they see what he couldn't or didn't at the time? Well, he _was_ married, so it wasn't like he was looking for anything in Stephanie. Maybe it was because he specifically wasn't looking that he didn't see what was there.

"I didn't say that."

"But you're thinking it." If Chris didn't have that ability himself, he might have laughed, but the irony was too much to handle.

"I like your sister very much."

_Code word for you're in love with my sister. Wow, Chris is in love with my sister, that sounds weird, not that it's bad, I mean, it's not really bad, Paul is the worst. I will never know what she saw in him to begin with, he's such a scumbag._

Okay, this was going very much his way. "You like her?"

"We've been hanging out, and she's…she's just something special," Chris said, and he wished he could tell her brother about how when he was with her, all the voices seemed to fade except hers, he wanted to tell her how they were slowly going away when he was with her, but he couldn't. Shane would think him crazy, but Stephanie was everything right now, and it wasn't just because she seemed to be the key to breaking this curse, she was just everything right now, end of story.

"What's so special about her?" Shane asked. "I mean, _I_ know what's special about her, but I want to hear it from you."

"What isn't? I like that she's different from everyone else, and I like that she's so insecure about that. She's beautiful and funny and gorgeous and she's the rare type that doesn't even know it. She doesn't throw around her attributes because she doesn't see them, and it's endearing. She has a voice, a strong one, and I want to be the one to help her get that out."

_Wow. Okay, so he might not have bad intentions towards her, that's good, that's good, but still, she is married. Bring that up. _"She's married."

"I know, but there are ways around that, not affairs, I don't…I've never done that. Barbie was certainly a mistake, but that was after the divorce, not during the marriage. I just told Stephanie that I liked her."

"And now you're giving her time to think," Shane sussed him out.

"Yeah, I guess I am," he said, not wanting to say it outright because then it would seem like a bigger deal than it was. It was just him waiting for Stephanie to tell him whether or not he had a chance with her.

"I saw her yesterday. She came over for lunch, she seemed okay, she really just wanted to see her nephews," Shane told him, "but she didn't look unhappy, and she didn't look mad or upset or anything. If anything, she seemed happier than usual. She and Marissa did talk about something in private, but I don't know about what."

He wondered if it was about him, and it was reasonable to think so. "Well, thanks for letting me know. I just wanted to make sure she was doing alright."

"Yeah, I think so."

"I think I've taken up enough of your time, but thanks again," Chris said.

"Hey, Chris, for the record, I think you'd be good for her," Shane said, "Paul hardly ever pays her any attention. He's just…I just think you'd be good for her, so if he chooses to be with you, prove me right, alright?"

"Yeah, I will," Chris said before hanging up. He felt better about his prospects of getting Stephanie. She was just a rare find, and he wanted to know more about her, know everything about her. Oh, who was he kidding, he was going to call her, and he immediately dialed her number. He couldn't help himself, he just needed to hear her voice.

"Chris, hey," she answered, sounding bright. _He actually called to check up on me, that is the cutest thing. I shouldn't think it, but he's just so…perfect. Okay, now you're just being weird because nobody is perfect, but I think if there was anyone who would be, it would be him. I mean, think about all the good things he's done for you, okay, you're gushing again._

He'd missed her long, rambling thoughts. "Hey, Steph, I just wanted to say hi, see how you were doing, what you were up to, how you were, you know, the usual stuff someone wants to find out when they're not trying to pressure anyone else."

_He's even worried that he's pressuring me._ "It's okay, Chris, I wasn't doing anything, just cleaning around the house while it's still quiet." That meant Paul wasn't there, typical. He never seemed to be around, but that might be a plus for him.

"Oh, well, I just wanted to talk to you, hear your voice and all that."

"Yeah?" _He really called for just that?_

"Yeah, that's it," he told her, "see how your day was, you know, the usual."

"Boring, spent most of it at home, doing nothing, didn't really feel like getting any work done today, so I just took it as a day off."

"You work so hard as it is, you deserve that."

"I like to think so, I know when my brain gets fried, and when that happens, it's time to take a day off," she laughed. _Plus, I've been thinking, so much thinking, and just tell him, Stephanie. I know you wanted it to be in person, but it's better over the phone, just in case he changes his mind, he won't have to see you, and you won't have to see him. Just do it!_ "Chris?"

"Yeah?" he was grinning now, he was just outright grinning, and he _did_ want her to see him grinning. He would love it if she were right there in front of him, but he'd take it any way he could get it.

"I want you."


End file.
